Auspicious Starts

I wanted to begin this new year with a good start, something positive in a sea of negative happenings in the world.  So for several nights after Christmas and before New Years Eve I got busy and did a lot of crocheting.  I got the "Granny Blanket" done! 

To review - the yarn belonged to my 102 year old Grandma Nellie who passed in November.  She and my mom had been cleaning out her craft cupboards and sent me a pile of yarn and when I went to help my mom care for her in August we had found a few more balls that I crocheted together while sitting and visiting with her.  She liked the pattern of the 'granny squares' and the idea of the afghan.  As I crocheted the squares after I came home I would often think of her and say a little prayer for her and my mom and aunts as she approached the end of her life.  There was no rhyme or reason to the yarn, it was just 'ends and pieces' of stuff she had used for years.  I really thought it might be fairly ugly with all the disparate colors going on.  I am so pleased with this silly thing, the colors are not hideous, the pattern is attractive and there was enough left over to do a border and it turned out fairly good size.  (On a side note I pulled out all the delicate or thin or summery colored yarn and will find another project for that stuff)

The unveiling:

 It nearly covers the washer and dryer

There are only the four corner holes in each square so it will be warm!

I really am pleased with the look of the 'single crocheting' the squares together rather than stitching them, I think it has a 'blanket stitch' kind of look to it.







So I am off to a good start for my year,  I have a lovely memory and a completed project that will spend a lot of time in January spread across knees as the temps are staying pretty low here, it was 6 degrees (F) last night (about -14C) and a throw over the legs is going to be very welcome!  (The pattern is free on the Red Heart Yarn website under the name 'Monkey Around' baby blanket.  I just liked the solid squares!)

Happy New Year to all of you and prayers for a blessed 2015!

2014 - WOW!!!

Who knew I'd live this long?  I distinctly remember being in high school and reading George Orwell's 1984 and thinking - well it will never happen and that is 10 years away and I could not conceive of anything after about 1985 or so and that was a stretch!

May 1974

In my first year of college I had decided to become a doctor, never marry, never have children and be a missionary to Africa.  By the time I realized that I did not have enough money to get through medical school I had met Hubby and then there was kid #1 and then....well it's been 33 years of marriage, 3 kids, and expecting the first grandchild.  Did I really fall so short of my goals?

Looking back I can see that far from falling short of my goals - the only thing I didn't get to was the Africa part!  Any mother can tell you that you are part doctor (I had 3 boys - more doctor than most!), I was able to share the gospel with my boys and to many kids in church through various programs I volunteered at.  It just didn't turn out the way I had planned -and I wouldn't change it for the world.  God knew what would work for me and where I needed to be.  (He knew I can't stand the heat!)

So my goals for 2014 are to keep working on being healthier, meeting those healthy eating and fitness goals, have many homemade gifts ready for the arrival of the new granddaughter (they have picked the name Lilly - I am in love already!) and expand and increase the garden this coming summer.  I hope to continue at the ladies Bible study and to be a good president of our new quilting group, I would like to think that the Proverbs 31 woman and I will become more alike as time passes and the Lord works on me, (she never sits down and cries and whines - I double checked!.....sigh).

It will be interesting to see how these goals are fulfilled by the end of the year and to see if I look back on them with as much of a smile as I do the ones from 1975!  I suspect not - I have learned a thing or two you know!  (about setting goals - not life!)

May you all reach most of your goals this year and enjoy the process!  Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It takes about a week into a new year before my mind catches up to the fact! 
Christmas is over and we had a wonderful time with the kids and with my mom, the handmade Christmas went over very well and everyone was pleased with the Heirloom gifts, we had great weather for our journey and it is good to be home! 
  It is so nice to trust in the sovereignty of God, I don't even want to contemplate what kind of place the world must be for someone who doesn't have that confidence.  My mother gave me a lovely devotional book for Christmas by Billy Graham called 'Unto the Hills", in it Rev Graham had a quote from John Baillie - it is a perfect reflection for a new year especially one with so much perceived uncertainty - God has a plan! So this will end my first post of 2012.
"The Bible indicates that the future is in God's hands.If it were in our hands, we would make a mess of it.  The future is not in the devil's hands, for then he would lead us into destruction. The future is not at the mercy of any historical determinism leading us blindly forward, for then life would be without meaning.  But the future is in the hands of One who is preparing something better than eye hath seen or ear heard, or has entered into the heart of man to conceive."