knitting for Hurricane Sandy relief

 As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I decided to make my "Hurricane Sandy" capelet for others as a way to raise money for hurricane relief. I'm happy to report that I'm not tiring of this fun and pretty pattern yet, having completed six (!) so far, and with at least 6 more to come.  I was so grateful for my ball-winder and swift (which were my birthday gift from hubby this year) when all that yarn came in.

 I love this wool! It is soft, with not too much halo, and there are such wonderful color blends, with just little hints of other colors to make them just all the more beautiful. I haven't gotten a picture of #6 yet, but without further ado, here are the others! Thanks to all who have ordered for your generosity toward the hurricane victims!

I am so grateful to Karen Clements for this wonderful pattern! Happy knitting!

thanksgiving and family friday

 Reviewing our Thanksgiving begins with this beautiful picture of our carrots: our final garden harvest of the season. After peeling and trimming, there was a full pound of carrots which we roasted and added a maple glaze...mmm, yum. We hosted this year's Thanksgiving dinner, with 11 attending.  I didn't get a good picture of "the bird" but you can imagine it: golden brown deliciousness. My secret: Reynold's oven bags, and cooking the "stuffing" outside the bird. Below is our tablesetting, with a runner and tablecloth I sewed up this week. The girlie made a full complement of handprint turkey place-cards. And we rejoiced and gave thanks, and ate too much.

 Friday, instead of joining the throngs doing "Black Friday" shopping-frenzy activities, we spent a family day together! We went to the B&O Train Museum to see Santa arriving on a steam engine (pictures turned out terrible, but it was fun). They also had a big Lego train display for the fans in my family:

 The decorations at the museum were wonderful, with a pair of these giant nutcrackers, and all the lit-up snowflakes hung from the rafters:

 And it was a sunny and fairly warm afternoon for a little play outside the museum:

 This is a nice view of the trains and roundhouse as we arrived back in the station after our train ride while we were there, and a view of the inside of a caboose they have on the train-yard:

Then! In case we had not had enough trains, we drove out to the Ellicott City Station (after a stop at Chick-fil-A, which was also very important), where our train museum membership also allowed us to visit, because they had ANOTHER large Lego train set-up as well as several other model train displays. I loved the wreath on the red caboose, so festive:

 And we got to see Santa! He had been hard at work on the railroad, and was dressed appropriately. It was good to have the kids get to tell him what they wanted and to at least have this one visit to count on, in case we don't get to see him somewhere else this month:

A fun family day. A good Thanksgiving holiday. We truly have so much to be thankful for, and we look forward to the coming season of joy as we prepare to celebrate Jesus's birth.

christmas cards are on their way!

 

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Here it is...your very own preview of our 2012 Christmas card! Coming soon to a home near you!

knit:: hurricane sandy capelet

There is nothing like a good storm with a real (or threatened) power outage to get me knitting!  Thankfully we weathered the storm without any real issues. As others gathered toilet paper and milk and batten down the hatches, I made sure that I had a simple pattern (i.e. can be done in near dark) and yarn! Last year's Hurricane Irene Vest was the first of these projects, and now I proudly introduce to you, the Hurricane Sandy Capelet!

It's made from 100% Peruvian Highland wool, and it keeps me toasty warm. I have received so many kind compliments on it this week (and I've only worn it twice, really!), that I decided to knit it for friends and aquaintances as a fundraiser for the hurricane relief efforts, because so many in NY and NJ are still suffering in so many ways. I am knitting it for the cost of yarn plus a donation to the hurricane relief efforts, and donating 100% of my time and proceeds. So over the next weeks and months, I will be knitting and knitting lots of these! (10 so far...yikes)  It sounds a little silly to say that God told me to do this, but it is absolutely true. I have been praying and praying for ways to use my creative talents to further the Kingdom of God, and He showed me that a compliment can be turned into a project that brings great good. I would love to tell you more of this story, if you would like to hear it.  And if you are reading this and want your own Hurricane Sandy Capelet, let me know. It may be a couple months before I get it to you, though!

Hope you are enjoying some happy knitting of your own...

a haunting we will go...

A fun day of school parades and parties! It was made even better by a 2-hour-late opening (due to recovery from hurricane Sandy): I don't think they did any work at school at all yesterday!  We had a chilly but dry evening for trick-or-treating and both kids enjoyed showing off their costumes.  "Optimus Prime" ( from the Transformers) and "Izzy" (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) both collected full baskets of sweets from around the neighborhood. And a good time was had by all.

in sandy's wake

As the east coast for the most part shut down completely over the past 48-72 hours, so did we.  Thankfully, hubby had purchased a generator about a month ago, so he spent much of Saturday getting it all set up in its own little lean-to outside. And while I don't believe in karma or such things, the result of all that hard prep work was that we didn't lose power beyond a flicker of the lights once or twice. We are thankful. And our prayers are with family who will likely not have power for multiple days, with friends who suffered damage or who are still "in the dark" and with all those who suffered immeasurably more damage than we can imagine, especially in New York.

Meanwhile, having battened down hatches and not having work or school to get to today, we made room for some quiet fun at home. There were UNO games played, lots of LEGO building...

LEGO men at work

a sewing project for the girlie (from the fun book, Sewing School )...

tracing her picture onto fabric...

her "stuffie": a pink dolphin stuffed animal

a hurricane knitting project for me (almost finished, pictures hopefully later this week), and the cats were completely fascinated by the wind and rain outside.

  I finished reading a couple of the books I've been reading, and hope to finish one more tonight (due back at the library tomorrow...). We had crock pot cream cheese chicken chili (thanks, Pinterest!) for dinner. And then there was the pumpkin carving.

Kids go back with a 2-hour delay tomorrow, which will allow us a nice relaxed start and a short day. And all in all, while I wouldn't wish this kind of "vacation" on anyone, it has been a rather nice break for us.

read :: what I'm currently reading

It is no news to anyone who knows me how much I love to read, and just how much I read. I love to stretch my mind, to expand my knowledge, to think about things and lives that are new to me. I love books that are about viewpoints that are different from my own that I can learn from, and books that challenge and grow my Christian faith. I do love fiction as well, but there are no fiction titles on my current list.  Lately I have had quite a few things going at once and I thought I might share with you what I am reading right now.

Books: (yes, I am in the middle of all of these, I do tend to flit from book to book, so some I go through quite quickly and others it may take me a month or more to read)

• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. This is a beautiful book of prose about nature and about the nature of creation. It is peaceful to read and I love to read a few pages just before I go to sleep at night.
• The Mountain of Silence by Kyriacos C. Markides.  This is an interesting book I've been reading this week, about Eastern Orthodox spirituality, in the form of an ongoing conversation between Markides and a monk on Cyprus.  Definitely teaching me a great deal about what makes Eastern Orthodox unique from western protestant Christianity.
• Walking the Amazon: 860 Days, One step at a Time by Ed Stafford. I love a good travel book and adventure story. I love the chance to read about places and people that I in all likelihood will never see or meet.  This book was a follow-up for me to re-reading Bill Bryson's book A Walk in the Woods (about the Appalachian trail) earlier this summer. Staffords "walk" along the Amazon is a completely different type of adventure.
• Beautiful in God's Eyes: The Treasures of the Proverbs 31Woman by Elizabeth George. This is one of my Bible Study texts right now, and I am always challenged by Elizabeth George to deepen my faith.

Things on my library shelf waiting to be read:

•  Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin. This is a sequel to her book The Happiness Project which I read last year.
• Real Marriage by Mark and Grace Driscoll. This Christian marriage book has drawn a fair amount of controversy and I have mixed opinions on Mark Driscoll's teaching/preaching, so I am curious to see what this one is like.
• The Radical Disciple by John Stott. Stott is one of the great theologans of our age and this book was meant to be his "farewell" book, summarizing what he thinks are the most important aspects of Christian life and following Jesus. Can't wait to dig into this one, too!
• A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael  by Elisabeth Elliot. I read this once when I was in grad school (about 15 years ago) and recently it was brought to mind again as a biography of a great missionary. Curious to compare it to the recent book I read Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis, who at a young age has had a huge impact on children in Uganda.

I was going to list out some of my favorite blogs to read as well, but this entry is already getting pretty long. I'm always looking for something new to read...any recommendations?