What a week and it is only Tuesday!!

Last night at church, Sugarloaf UMC, we had the first annual SUM Awards.  These awards were designed to highlight each ministry area and the top volunteer in that area.  I won for the congregational care ministry for my Prayer shawl ministry.

 I won the Golden Needles Award and when the name of the award was announced, I heard a couple of gasps as I am well known for knitting at church functions when ever I can.  If I had planned things out better, I would have been caught knitting in my seat and brought it with me.  The entire night was tongue-in-cheek, but there was a serious side.  The other people that were given awards also work very hard in the church for no real recognition, I know we all do it because we do love what we do.  And that I am humbled to have gotten this award for doing something I love to do, knit and help people.  I have been feeling that I have been slipping in my ministry and in my faith, since my mom passed.  I have been missing something, a hole in my soul, and last night, I really felt the love from all those at church.  I have never really felt part of anything and here at this church, it is truly a family. 

I will be making a new shawl pattern from this book that I was given, I will post as I start making it.  I have some special yarn that I have been waiting to use to make this.  Not sure who I want to give this shawl to, but I know that God will put that person in my life and show me that they need the shawl and the love.

I hope that today is a blessed day for all those that read this blog and that if you like it, please share it and get it out there.  I will be writing again soon!

Another Day knitting Away!!

I belong to this awesome website, Craftsy,com and I really love using it for knitting ideas.  They have online classes and workshops, some free, but I get some great information there and learn how to do new things.  I finally have seen how to do Continental knitting and purling, I could do the knit stitch but the purl stitch I never caught on.  I got the beginner knitting class, there are some great things in there to learn, and I get to keep it forever.  They have crochet classes also, I have a couple of free patterns from there also.

I am working on a great little neck warming scarf, got it from this beginning knitting class, and it is fun to make.  I am getting back on my feet from all the drama of earlier this year, and this is great therapy for me!!

I will post a picture of the finished project in a later blog, just finishing up the first half and starting the 2nd half.  This also keeps me from sewing the cardigan for my daughter, I do hate to sew but I have a training video on this one and how to block correctly, which I was never shown how since I taught myself how to knit.

I hope you all find something to work on, pop on a comment and let me know what your latest project is!  I would love to see it.

Here is it halfway through April and I feel like I have come out of a fog!  With the passing of my mom in February, life seems to have stopped, all the things I would take joy in just was not doing it for me.  I had lost weight and now I am back up, guess stuffing my feelings down with food was my drug of choice.  I have made some changes, I am back to watching my food intake, keeping it to real foods and healthy choices.  I have started to walk again, with the warmer weather I am enjoying the outdoors again.  We have an updated walking Greenway, so I am off to that this morning to check out the updates.
I am back to knitting, I will post a picture of the sweater that I am working on, Katie outgrew her cardigan and wanted to have the same one, different yarn colors, but just bigger.  I also have a wonderful pattern for a triangle shawl and will start that later today, Just need the needle for it.

This will be a short one.  I have to get back into my knitting and crocheting and start designing, I have some things in my mind that I want to create.

God bless and keep happy!!

Back in the Saddle again? Maybe.

Wow, 2 months since I posted and so much has happened.  I turned 47 on March 10th, my mom passed away on February 9th the same day my daughter turned 6.  I am teaching knitting/crochet on Wednesday nights at my church.

Life is just churning away and I am not on the band wagon.  I have stepped aside to take in losing my mom.  She was such a force in my life,  for good in many ways that I never even thought about.  Having been named after her has made it hard to even hear my name lately, never thought that would happen.  Never thought much about being named after her, but now I feel I have to live up to that name.

She made me promise her that I would lose weight and get healthy as I have already started showing signs of heart disease and that was a medical problem I know she hated.  It caused a lot of problems for her and she and I talked quite a few times about how I was walking down the road she did and she did not want that for me or my family.  I now understand what she was talking about.  I think so much about what would happen if I was not here for my 2 kids.  They are only 6 and almost 9 and I want to be here to help them grow up, become great adults and see my grand kids (if there are any) and enjoy them!!  I do worry about them and all the things in their lives that will and can come up, things that happened to me that I never want to happen again.  The bullying in school, the missing school for being so sick that I had to have tutors and almost not graduating High School not for grades but for missing days from school. 

I now have a fire in my soul to live up to the promise to my mom.  I know she is walking with me everyday, watching over my whole family.  I can feel her with me and I know she is smiling! 

I am back to knitting.  I have to finish a sweater for my daughter today, and make some shawls for my ministry at church.  We are getting low on them.  I will be posting more knitting items and things that I see around that are new.  I need to find a way to make extra money while being home, hate having a "job" where I have to be on someone Else's schedule.  I would love to have the opportunity at a moments notice to go into school and help there if I am called.  Might even do more with the PTA, have been asked to join some committees.  We shall see.  Have to pray on it and see what God wants for my life. 

2012, who knows what lays ahead!!

Here it is 10 days into the new year, and I have not written down my thoughts.  It was a hard Christmas season, but we are through it and hopefully the new year will be better.  My mind is ready for the worst to happen, so if it does not, then good for me.

I am going to be starting on a new project, called the Falling Leaves Shawl with some awesome mohair glitter yarn, if it comes out nice enough I will be donating it to my prayer shawl ministry I have at church.  I have been neglecting it of late, so that is something I need to change for 2012.  Prayerfully hoping that the things I need to do this year will be done, this is the year I will be putting a lot of things up to God as I am too weary to try and do it anymore!!  The road that I have been on this past year has had some pain and sickness, both personally and for my family, and the more I try and control that, the less control I have and more stress so as the good book says, give it to God!! 

I hope that I can knit much more this year and I have learned a slightly new way of crocheting in order to create a picture from a specialized pattern, when I start work on that shortly I will post pictures.  Right now I have to finish up a sweater for Katie, my daughter and start planning her 6th Birthday!!  Still cannot believe that is happening in February!!

I hope this finds you well and that I am able to post more this year, I really would love to get this blog going and seen by more people, don't know where it will lead, but letting the Lord lead me!!

God Bless!!

Christmas in GA

     Well here we are, 5 days into December, 19 more days before Christmas Eve, and I am not stressed.  I find this amusing to me, normally I am looking at my calendar and seeing so many things on my list of things to do and trying to figure out how to do more.  Not this year, I am taking it to heart that Christ is the reason for the season and I am not going to run around and make myself crazy with shopping and trying to get a million things for the kids under the tree so they feel loved.  That is not why they feel loved, they feel it because Eric and I show them our love by doing for them.  Eric is the den leader for Alex, he has to leave work early on Monday's and with his new position will have traveling, but he makes sure he is there for Alex.  I make sure that the kids have good healthy food to eat, that I spend time each day with them and play, that they have clean clothes and a relatively clean house to live in.  I make sure they go to church to learn about God and Jesus and what that means for us.  We take them to do things like pack food for families that have nothing, caroling for older folks who have no one to visit them, making sure they realize just how lucky they really are to be living here in the USA and that they have a house, and clothes and stuff!

     I am going to be knitting somethings for Christmas, I have to plan the party for Alex's class as I am class mom.  Trying to figure out how to spend the precious few days we have up north with our families so that the kids get the quality time with their grandparents, and they get to experience Christmas the way we had growing up.  The kids are hoping for snow!!  Secretly, so am I, but not while we are driving!! 

Well now I have to get going, have lots of clothes to wash, vacuuming to do, and a kitchen to scrub down to get it ready for the month.  I will be going back to my Flylady roots and getting a schedule going again for my housework.  This way I stress less and enjoy my life more and have more time to knit!!

     I am planning on writing more in the new year, and trying my hand at some designing of simple items for knitting and crocheting.  If you want to learn how, I would love to teach you and if you live in Suwanee, drop me a note and we can set it up!!  If not, find a local yarn shop or look on YouTube, there are tons of videos out there.  You can even get books and videos from the library!!

Take care and Merry Christmas!!

11-11-11

Once a century we have this date, happens for each of our months.  But this one is special, this is Veterans Day here in the US and we remember all those men and women who either were called to duty with the draft or volunteered to serve our country.  These brave men and women took a stand and said that our freedoms here in the USA are more important to them then the possible loss of their lives.  I cannot fathom this concept, I would give my life for my kids, but to be in the military and do it for the people I don't know, that takes a special person to do it.  I salute and send my undying gratitude to all those that serve, including my Dad, who was in the forgotten war, Korea. 

Today I want to try and honor those that have served, so I will be visiting the site, www.veterans.com, I saw it on a video yesterday on Facebook.  I want to see what I can knit for them to keep them safe while they are at war, and we are at war.  I have seen some helmet liners and I want to see what else I can make.  I hope to add this to my ministry at church at some point, but right now, my ministry is floundering, I am not being a great leader in this.  Life is getting away from me, I am slipping, and now I need to refocus on my family and my God, putting God first and doing his work here.  There are a number of places that I might be able to add my handiwork, I will have to do more research and get back with you!!

On a funny note, my son who is 8 has decided that he wants to be a soldier when he grows up.  I am proud of that, know it will change, but told him that if he wants to do this I told him that he wants to do this, he needs to go to either the Naval Academy or West Point.  He would have a better chance at the Navel Academy as his great grandfather was in the Navy and we have ties there, but his choice.  He thought that would be cool as he thinks officers get better weapons!!  What an 8 year old mind thinks!!! 

God Bless you and God Bless those that serve and have served!!