Ten Things Thursday

Ten things that have made me smile recently are below!

1) C and I are taking H to the circus, and I think we are as excited as he is (or maybe more since he's never been)! Do they still have the spinning blue flashlights?




2) H and W have really started playing together more. Now that W is more mobile they "chase" each other around with W occasionally saying, "Boo, boo, boo!" to scare H.





3) I took another knitting class this week and started my first project knitting in the round, which looks like this:





At least, this is how it looks on double point needles. There are circular needles which would look a little more round. It strikes me as very funny/ironic that knitting in the round looks like a square and a tic-tac-toe board!

4) W has been playing us some tunes on the piano in the evenings and is quite proud of himself.

5) H has been drawing on the dry erase side of his new easel. (We got him this easel because he doesn't have much interest in writing/drawing/coloring).

6) Tonight is the last night C will be home late due to working on an assignment for school (at least for this week)!

7) Seinfeld from 7-8 on our tv, thank you programmers, this mommy needs it.

8) Getting the news that my great friend, Aunt J, and her husband will most likely be visiting (from England) in late summer or early fall.

9) Finishing Peace Like a River (stay tuned for the review in February, I liked it) and starting to re-read Pride and Prejudice for my local library book club.

10) Dreaming about returning to college in a year and a bit to slowly work toward a degree in something I love.

The Shack Book

I read The Shack by William P. Young way back in October, but I really wanted to share my opinion of it here. So after putting it off for some time, here I go. First, if you haven't heard about The Shack, this is the product description from Amazon.com:

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

I thought the book was interesting and could tell that the author put a lot of thought and faith into it. Who wouldn't want to speak with God, to see some of heaven before arriving there for eternity? From the little I've read about it on Amazon.com, the book brings out widely varied reactions, but this is just mine, just my two cents.

To me, the book portrayed God as a very loving being. A being so loving that He wasn't focused on some of the other "things" that I think most people feel God would be "interested" in. I guess I should just out with it: I thought this book's God was too soft, too human. I want my God to be mighty "vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord," (Romans 12:19) a being who is regarded with mingled fear, respect and affection (that's the definition of revere, I didn't think of that myself). "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalms 111:10) I know none of us are perfect, that we all fall short, "judge not that ye be not judged" and all that line of thought, but if the blame keeps being put on the parents or care-givers of wrong-doers (as in this book), where does the blame finally end? I hope that God is loving and forgiving as depicted in The Shack, but I also hope He is the pillar of fire and the omnipotent rock of ages I've read about in The Bible.

I'd love to hear what you thought of The Shack, but please no bashing!

The Gift Revealed

I've been alluding to a big, super Christmas gift, but I've just now gotten C to get a picture ready for me to show here. After lots of hemming and hawing, thinking and re-thinking, second-guessing my commitment to making things, talking to C and Mel about it, C and I decided he would purchase a sewing machine for me for Christmas. Not just any sewing machine, the mother brand of all sewing machines... with no further ado, behold my BERNINA!



Okay, that's not the best picture, but it's all I've got. I am ashamed to admit that I had not sewn on it at all when I went in for my first mastery lesson with it (yes, you get six classes with the purchase of this brand). However, this past week, I put together what I am calling a burp cloth (it could be a "lovie") for Mel's little one. So, finally, I really sewed on it and made something. Hooray! I am still planning to stick to my plan to make pajamas for us all for 2009's Christmas morning. I did use flannel for the backing of the burp cloth, so that was my first experience sewing flannel. I'm not sure if our pajamas will be flannel... I need to make a trip to the great big fabric store soon to decide on some material. I hope this will prove to be a smart, useful purchase and not just a dust gatherer. Of course, my mom has already mentioned that now we could make some curtains to replace the deteriorating ones on my back door. (I'm not kidding, C and I are thinking of taking some pictures to send to HGTV in the hopes that they will come help us :) Oh, and I'm still wanting to choose a name for my gal (besides Bernina). She needs a name, any suggestions?

I've Been Knitting...

Sorry to be missing around here. I have pictures, book reviews, and stuff I want to share, just no time to get it done it seems. With C back to school, blogging time is a bit hard to find. I am starting to think the only way to be productive is to get up earlier in the morning. Sigh, not what I want to do. Maybe I could try getting up earlier on the two days H goes to school. That way, when W is napping, I'll be doing something besides showering and getting myself presentable.

I went to visit some friends who just had a baby boy last week. He was one ounce heavier than H was at birth and the same length. My first thought when I saw that little guy was, "No way!" I just can't believe how small newborns are and that my big boy was once that small! I took the new little one this hat. I was very proud because I was able to do the I-cord (the drawstring) after watching a YouTube video and reading my Stitch 'n Bitch book!

Then, last weekend, I went to a baby shower for an old friend who is expecting a little girl in February. She and her husband are Clemson University alums, so I made another Clemson-themed hat. This time, I put purple around the top, but I waited too many rows to change to purple, so you can see the stripe on the top! Oh well, as far as they know, I wanted it to look like that, right?

So, obviously, I'm still loving my knitting. I'm looking forward to taking another lesson at my LYS (local yarn shop) soon and learning to knit in the round since there are more babies coming soon! I am going to try my best to get some book reviews up here soon.

Who're You Bloggin' For?

If you're like me, and sometimes feel pressure to blog about certain topics or not go too deep in the darker areas, you need to read Amy's guest post over at Kate's The Big Piece of Cake. After reading it, I felt the need to say out loud, "Right on, sister!" Or should it have been "write on?" Anyway, do go read it if you have a few minutes. It's inspiring me to go ahead and publish those posts that were ruled "too depressing." The thing is, this should be an outlet for me, correct? Not something I feel pressured about.

Also, I just spoke with another friend tonight who is ALSO pregnant (due in early August)! I think it's making C a little nervous :)

Chattahoochee Mama announces our next online-book-club book tomorrow! You know I can't wait to see what it will be! Check out her blog to join in!

Something in the Water

It seems like everyone is announcing their pregnancies! Four bloggers that I read regularly are expecting (and I think a fifth just hasn't told yet). Then, today, I had an email from a dear friend that she is due in July! She emailed and told me to start working on a Clemson toboggan hat for her expected little one! Of course, then I thought, they won't need a toboggan in July, so I'll make it to fit when the little one is a few months older. They are not planning to find out the baby's gender, so I'm planning to try for stripes and knitting it in the round! I get pretty excited about knitting (and the babies, too). All this baby news is making me think..., but that is wishful thinking (at least for now). I am curious to see if it's going to be a girl or boy year. It seems like it goes in waves. My two are keeping me very busy right now (thus explaining the lack of posts). Now that W is walking, I spend most of my time chasing after him. I still need to blog about my awesome Christmas gift and show some more of my knitting projects! For now, though, congratulations to all you expectant moms!