The Bug

Well, the bug has hit our house. Fortunately, it is not the flu bug - it is the KNITTING bug! I now know that I love, love, love to knit. Yesterday I went to my favorite thrift store and found 3 wonderful knitting books for a dollar each. The Family Album of Knits has such beautiful pictures.

I think the thing I love most about knitting is that I can sit with my family and interact with them while I create something. Even though my sewing machine is close to the living room, I can only listen to the "action" while I quilt. The sad thing is that I now stand in the yarn aisles at Joanns and drool :)

Here are some pictures from my new books. I can't wait to start on the tea cozy - too cute. I have also included an updated picture of my shawl. Maybe I'll have it finished by the weekend. Now I am off to dinosaur land and homeschooling fun!

Have a wonderful week sweet friends!

Perfection

What do you call a lazy Sunday afternoon complete with a "fort" in the living room, a fire in the fireplace, a shawl on my knitting needles, hot chocolate, popcorn and a sweet movie? Perfection :)

Thankfulness

Today is a milestone day for me. I start a new decade of life! A day of thankfulness for so many things - my God, my cute husband of 30 years, my 6 precious children, family and friends who love me, and so much more. As I sit here in the dark of early morning, life is so good. I am warm, well-fed, clothed, and safe. So many in our world did not wake to the same joy and security.

Every morning after I read my Bible, I read my Operation World book. Such an eye opener for me to see that millions and millions of precious people are still living in spiritual darkness while I sit in the comfort of my home. My prayer for this year of life is that I truly love others as Jesus loves them. That I desire to care for the "least of these" every day. That I am willing to do whatever or go wherever He leads me without hesitation or complaining.

But now I am off to cook breakfast for three little cuties, learn about dinosaurs, teach sign language, knit on my shawl and then go to dinner with my sweet Randy. Sounds like a perfect birthday. Have a wonderful day sweet friends!

Roar!!!

I asked the three little ones what they wanted to study for the next month, and the unanimous choice was dinosaurs! We already had dinosaur books and puzzles, but the internet gave us enough lessons to do for many, many weeks. We have started a big dino mural and lapbook, we are doing dino math, dino language lessons, dino handwriting......and more! If you want to see some amazing dino pages, go to http://www.learningpage.com/ Beware - you will be making an emergency trip to Walmart for more printer ink :)

We also decided this week to coop our science lessons with another family (because someone nameless was not doing a great job teaching science by herself). We will alternate homes on Friday afternoons and do dinosaur science together. Thank you Blythe family!!! Our other homeschool coop starts this week, and I am so excited - I will be teaching sign language to a sweet group of middle schoolers. I think we are really getting back into the "schooling groove" after the holidays. Why does it always take 3 weeks to recover from 2? lol!

The knitting is going well, but I am still ripping out more than I am keeping :) Thank you Niki (Rural Writings) for the wonderful shawl pattern! I had one almost finished and then made a BIG boo-boo. I ripped it completely out and have started again. I have decided that I am learning to knit the hard way, but I'm learning.

The big, terrific, exciting news around our house this week was the purchase of the new swingset, fort, playground thing-y that will soon take up a big hunk of our barren backyard. We bought it at Sams, and it really will be a wonderful place for the little ones to play. Mason keeps going out to the garage just to look at the boxes and the slide :) Now if we can just bribe several sweet, sweet people to come over and help us put it together! Any takers?

Have a blessed week!

When God Changes Things

I have come to love the times in my life when I am obviously not in control - the times when God steps in and says, "Let's change direction just a little." He came and spoke that way several years ago and we now have three precious children from China as a result. I enjoy just going along for the ride and letting Him drive :)

For several weeks now I have felt a tug toward foster parenting infants. Our fabulous adoption agency, Buckner, just opened a fostering agency in our city. We had the first documents notarized and sent off today, so once again we are in the midst of a LOT of paperwork and waiting for the next step.

I have done a lot of reflecting this week on how God has changed our hearts over the past few years. When we first started looking into adoption, we thought we were doing it to help a child find a family. We thought we would rescue a child and give her a secure, loving Christian home. What we realized was that when we were obedient to God's call, the blessing was all ours. Each child brought immeasurable joy and blessing to our home. The end was not what we had dreamed - God transformed it into so much more. I can only imagine what He has planned for this next adventure!

I love this picture of our Molly. How this little one transformed our hearts and our family. She started our love affair for the Chinese people, and she makes my heart happy every day. When we adopted her in 2003, she was very unhappy for several days. We worked so hard to get this smile. Don't you just love all those dimples!

I Need Sleep!

A sweet friend and I started walking 2 or 3 miles every morning at 5:30. That is well and good IF I have slept the night before, but lately.......2 precious little girlie darlin's have been waking up repeatedly during the night. Last night at 3:00 (am!!!!) Madelyn woke up (again), and I carried her back to bed (again). I told her that she was awake waaaaaaaay too early. She looked at me with those beautiful eyes and used her cutest voice and said, "I am just a little girl...I don't know how to read clocks yet".

I am a tired mommy, but so blessed to be able to stay at home with these little ones. I have taught all three to fingerknit this week. Molly has knitted probably 100 feet of beautiful chained knitting, and Mason isn't far behind her. Madelyn and I are struggling with her knitting because she can't decide whether to knit right-handed or left-handed :) She hasn't picked a hand for eating or writing either.

Here is a picture of sweet Madelyn after her sleepless night, Molly and her wonderful knitting, and Mason with his handmade cross necklace. They are such cuties!

My New Year

I made a semi-resolution a few years ago to learn one new craft or skill every year. 2009 is knitting year :) Last year I learned to crochet and made enough dish cloths to last a very long time. Our church has a new group of young mommy knitters who have motivated me to learn how to knit more that dish cloths this year. Their precious little ones have the cutest diaper bags and diaper covers. I can just picture Mason, Molly and Madelyn in handmade sweaters, scarfs and mittens!

Here is the latest project - a corded cable scarf made from clearance yarn I bought today at Michael's. It is my third scarf, and probably my last for a while (boring!). Hopefully I can finish this one soon and start on a simple sweater for the girls. I am finding that buying yarn is as addictive as buying fabric. Those of you who have read this blog for a while might remember that I gave away most of my fabric last month in a bold move toward simplification. I need to constantly remind myself that I don't want to get in the same situation with yarn!

Wish me well on my knitting venture. I'll keep you posted!

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was our 30th wedding anniversary - wow! My very precious husband brought home beautiful roses, took me out for dinner, and then took me shopping for new wedding bands. Thank you sweet guy for a wonderful day (and 29 years plus 364 other wonderful days!).

This is a big month for me - I will have my 50th birthday in a couple of weeks. What a great time to reflect on how blessed and loved I am. A loving husband, 6 of the most wonderful children in the world, a God who loves me undeservedly, sweet friends, and so much more. Thanks to each of you who come here and leave sweet comments. You add to the blessings of this life with your encouraging words.

Much love,

Mary

There Goes Another One!

Mason - the toothless wonder!

Happy New Year!