On Gratitude

Today, unlike my poor turkey friend, I have much for which to be thankful. I could say lots, but instead I just took 3 minutes to walk around my home, and I quickly took pictures that tell of my reasons to be thankful more accurately than a thousand of my own words.

I have a wonderful, handy and loving husband.

I have a home filled with music--a luxury few enjoy.

I have a refrigerator filled with food, when so many go hungry each day.

I have the opportunity to fritter away time knitting together wonderfully colored fibers from my yarn stash.

I can look outside my family room window and be graced by one of God's creatures.

I have a husband who studies and loves God's word.

My children have the luxury of having their own bedrooms with beds to keep unmade for days at a time.

I receive a steady stream of lovingly handmade crafts from my girls.

I receive the unconditional love of a stinky little dog named Charlie.

My children have the good fortune of not having to take themselves too seriously...

which is a good thing, right?


To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. ~Johannes Gaertner

Prairie Girls

My girls are just crazy about "playing prairie". This usually includes donning some sort of bonnet and skirt, and proceeding to forage for nuts and berries...which usually end up being beads, buttons or stones brought inside for just such imaginative play. They are currently going through "A Life of Faith" series with a dear friend of mine and her daughter Sophie, and the stories that they hear are right out of the same time period that their play is usually centered around. This picture is from a recent Thanksgiving gathering of the LOF girls at a local forest preserve. The girls made butter, sampled foods that would have been eaten this time of year "in the olden days", and made a paper cornucopia that Mrs. Kennedy kindly filled with candy. They had an excellent time.

Hat Head

Whenever I have an overwhelming project ahead of me, I tend to have a period of time before tackling that project that I indulge in a fair amount of PROCRASTINATION. This was true in high school and college; it reared it's ugly head big time in graduate school...and for the last several years I have settled into the habit of rearranging my sock drawer before taking on bigger household tasks. It all gets done...but on a longer timeline than necessary. In fact, I should be vacuuming and mopping right now (how domestic, right?), but instead I'm posting about procrastination. Ah, sweet irony...


Bottom line? I have a TON of holiday knitting projects to tackle...and instead, I take on making hats. Now, this is all in the name of working on new techniques...but I could be ALL DONE with my planned projects by now!!!

I thought I would post some pictures of my head model Belle showing off my work. I am quite pleased with myself, since one of the items that I completed was MY FIRST FAIR ISLE PROJECT!!! (Thank you to Lisa for lending me "Knitting Little Luxuries")

This is a hat pattern that I took on in order to learn how to increase by knitting through the front and back of a stitch. At least I think that's what I did...it's all a blur.

This was going to be a snood for a friend that we are visiting in December in Michigan. I got about 4 inches into the project and decided it was too tedious and I was afraid I was messing it up, so I decided to start the decrease part of the pattern and make it into a little cap for the girls. They love it.



This was the easy Fair Isle pattern from "Knitting Little Luxuries". It has a 5 color option, and a 2 color option. I just held my breath and jumped into this one, and it turned out just great. I only wish I used better fiber, but maybe next time. I also learned to do a 3 needle bind-off. (For my knitting friends, this will make sense.) I am feeling victorious!

I now shall return to my regularly scheduled projects. And to my vacuuming.

G.I. Belle

It used to be that every morning when the girls awoke they would come in to my room to say good morning. Well, things are slowly changing in this routine, and it has become the norm that when the girls do get up, 75% of the time they plop on the couch and pick up a book to read. Only when I am done showering and getting ready do I even know that they are up. (My suspicion is that they are trying to keep really quiet so I won't send them for their breakfast, which is one step closer to starting their school work!)

So this morning, when I was drying my hair and noticed Belle's little body plopped across my bed with her nose in a book, I wasn't too surprised. Then she said, "Mom, did you know that you can set up a string...and if the bunny nibbles on it, a rock will fall on it and kill it?". She has been reading Thorton Burgess' "The Burgess Animal Book for Children", and I know that Mr. Burgess' strength is his ability to convey a lot of information about the animal kingdom through fun stories about Peter Rabbit, Reddy Fox, Jumper the Hare, and Mother Nature, among many others. I thought this was a little dark for Mr. Burgess, but I just said a hesitating, "Uh huh" as I finished applying my mascara.

Next, my eight-year-old animal lover started matter-of-factly rattling off a whole list of ways in which one could trap, kill or incapacitate small woodland creatures. Yes, it was time for me to come around the corner and investigate. This is what I found:



She had found her Dad's Survival Guide from his time in the military. Both her father and her grandfather will be very proud to read this post. :)

First Violin Recital

This is the morning of Moo's first violin recital, November 8, 2009.

The room was packed.

Both Moo and her Dad were excited. They are like twins, don't you think?

Waiting for Moo's turn.
Can you see how excited my Dad is to be there? The Bears played this afternoon, and let's just say he was...um..."conflicted" about not spending time with his large screen t.v. and our embarrassingly lousy football team.

Violin instructor, Miss Honna Austin, announcing the piece that Moo would play; "Andantino" from Suzuki book 1.

She did extremely well...we are so proud of her.
The kid has an amazing ability to hide her nerves.
She gets that from her Dad.

Moo with Miss Honna.


And now, the moment you all have been waiting for....the video: