I need some comfort!

These are comfort books: Tears of the Giraffe ; Morality for Beautiful Girls. These are the kind of books that don't shock you with bad language. They make you think a little, but confirm your worldview. Other comfort books that I've read in my life include The Blue Castle (over and over again when I was a teen) and The Ice Child (I finally bought my own copy as I was afraid the library would discard it).

My hats are off to the bloggers who continue to delight me with daily writings. Thank you for the slices of life that I enjoy dipping into each day.

I will delight you with a small gallery of finished knitting. Knitting keeps me sane these days.

The shawl is for a lovely lady at church - to honour and bless her for her tireless serving and devotion to God (Multnomah shawl; Smooshy yarn). The fingerless gloves were a commission knit from a co-worker of my son's, who had admired the ones I made for him (Red Heart Comfort Sport yarn; generic gloves). Gloves are a challenge! The cabled slipper socks were also a challenge, but not as hard as I thought they would be (Log Cabin socks; Cascade 220 Superwash yarn). They are for a man at church who is taking chemo treatments. I call them comfort socks :)

One chapter down...

The problem with having a blog with a reading theme and containing mostly book reviews is...what if you aren't reading? It seems I can hardly take a breath these days as I deal with the "stuff of life". Books are being read a page at a time, rather than gulping down chapters as usual. So a standard book review will have to wait.

In the meantime, a well-known (to homeschoolers, anyways) young man (and author and pastor) has written a new book. After reading the first chapter I am anxious to continue and put it on my Amazon wish list. It is interesting to see this man, who I first got to know when he was just a teen, becoming so mature. He continues to influence and God is blessing his ministry. In fact, I regularly listen to his church's sermons. http://www.covlife.org/

Since the weather is becoming a little nippy and I had some so, so, soft baby camel yarn from China to play with, here is a so, so, cute pair of fingerless mitts I made the other day. About 6 hours from start to finish, they are a warm treat to wear and a pleasure to fondle. In fact, I keep them in the car beside the seat, to do just that.

Continuing to read through my blog roll

Reading through my blog roll is like a trip through memory lane. So many wonderful treasures to be found there. I really need to have things "in my face" to remember them. How to come up with a way to visit these blogs on a more regular basis? Oh, I know .... add about 5 hours to my day! That should do it.

The holidays are over. This week "real life" begins again. In the meantime, I will read through blogs and pretend that I have no responsibilities.

For at least 15 minutes a day.

Check out the innovative art work on this site. http://www.judaicajournal.blogspot.com/

This menorah is one of my favorites.

Conquering computer clutter

In keeping with the new year theme, the time has come to go through the files on my computer and delete everything that's not needed any more.


Starting with my blog roll.


I collect blog addresses like I collect recipes. Click, click, click. Save, save, save. But then I rarely have time to check them all. So that has been the first mountain to climb on this organizing journey.


I've managed to about half the number by removing those no longer relevant, useful or interesting. Much more manageable.


One that will remain is ffoz.org. And now they have a video teaching segment that promises to add much to my spiritual diet.


Check it out.


http://ffoz.org/blogs/2008/12/mishlei_musings_-_balancing_lo.html

Not so recent reading

Some people blog everyday and some once a week. I am a once-a-month blogger. Especially since I blog about reading and I haven't been reading much lately. What have I been doing? Knitting! Knitting in the morning while listening to my bible CD's; knitting while listening to knitting podcasts; knitting while keeping a watch on the children's schoolwork; knitting at night watching a movie. When I do read, I read about....knitting!

Before knitting took over my life, I was reading about the glycemic index way of eating in an effort to find a way to lose weight. I thought that losing some weight might help my high blood pressure. One of the best books out there is "The g.i. diet" by Rick Gallop. It's basic and organized. You can come away understanding what this gi thing is all about. And his chart of green light food (good to eat), yellow light food (eat in moderation) and red light food (avoid) is the perfect thing to put on your fridge as a check before you put something in your mouth. Basically, you try and choose food that is harder to digest (whole grains for example) so your stomach doesn't quickly turn it to sugar.

With regular exercise and the low gi way of eating I have managed to lose 10 pounds, with 10 more still to go.

A lesson in frustration

Blogging is a exercise in frustration. How many days have I said to myself, "Today is the day I'm going to update my blog." And then it proceeds like this:

1. Get camera because I MUST share my latest hobby creation - a pair of socks. Hmm....out of batteries.

2. Look for batteries. Can only find one even though I have bought numerous sets of rechargeable batteries to make sure that I never am at a loss. OK - forget the picture, I'll just write about them.

3. Sit down at desk. Look for note I wrote with blogging ideas. Desk is VERY cluttered. OK...

4. Organize desk. Find receipts that I thought I had lost that should go to MIL. Put them in an envelope in purse.

5. Find other important papers that I need to keep. Put them in places that I will NEVER forget where they are (hmmm.....have I heard that before?)

6. Notice that someone has spilled something sticky on the desk underneath all these papers. Go to kitchen for wet cloth. Clean up.

7. Decide I really need a small container to hold all those little "things" - paper clips etc. Back to kitchen.

8. Make piles of... library stuff to go back, hair clips to go to bathroom, notes to self that can't be thrown out, knitting notions, books I'm reading, bills to pay, SS papers, school schedules...

9. Finally the desk (in front of me, anyways) is clear. I can begin.

But you know, my stomach is growling. It's telling me that it hasn't been fed yet.

So...maybe breakfast first and then later today, when I get a break, I'll write about that pair of finished socks. And maybe by then I'll have tracked down the other battery for the camera and can share their beauty.

Maybe.

Getting the hang of this....slowly

I seem to have figured out how to make my way around my Sunday School site - getting comments in, links in and photos uploaded. So I'm going to try that over here as well. Today was very productive at home - and we got the final inspection done on the renovation! Hurray! Now we can start moving stuff in - officially. When it's all looking neat I'll try and post a picture. In the meantime, I'll begin with one that I already have on file.....I hope. [a few minutes go by] It worked! This is me with my daughter at a Mary Kay makeover dinner. Do I look glamorous?

January 6, 2007

I have entered the frustrating world of blogging. Because of an unsuccessful attempt to create a Telus myspace and put pictures there, I thought I would whip up a blog and share my pictures. No such luck! Several hours later I'm still learning. Part of the problem is my darling 6 yo. He is in a VERY talkative mood and wants to share EVERYTHING he is doing with me - step by step. We have a galactic/medieval war going on complete with seige towers, gunfights, swordfights etc. I have to concentrate HARD to get my mind around this computer stuff and it's difficult with a background litany of warfare going on. I'm torn between wanting to give him my full attention and wanting to GET THIS DONE.