Thursday afternoons are our library day. Our oldest daughter volunteers there for an hour on Thursdays but it has gotten so that every time we run in there to pick up a book or a movie, she runs behind the desk to help out. Next to home, it is her favorite place to be during the week. She really enjoys the responsibility and the whole workings of the library system.
At 4:00, we head to the all purpose room for our knitting group that meets every week. I owe so much to the librarian, Wendy, and her predescesor, TaraLynn, for starting this group. Coming every week really helped to spark that love of knitting for me. My dear friend, Karen, also goes every week and we share our new projects and talk about the latest pattern book or notion acquisition. Too fun. Another good friend, Kelley, comes with her daughter who is knitting, but we've got to work on Kelley to learn!
Currently working on a beaded drawstring bag for my cousin's fiance for her bridal shower next Sunday. Beautiful pattern from Knitting Little Luxuries. I'm doing it in a creamy white angora with pearl beads. Hope she enjoys it as much as I do.
The girls are on the mend a bit today. Coughing is finally subsiding a bit. Hurray!
May the Lord richly bless your day.
Blessings,
Lisa
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
What was it I said about early mornings with sick kiddos?
One of our daughters was up at 5 am coughing up a fit. I brought her downstairs, got her all settled with an Albuterol treatment, and made some candy cane tea. My sister in law gave me a box of this tea from Celestial Seasonings which they only make during Christmas time. I love peppermint tea, but this also has some nice vanilla in it. Very nice and all the girls loved it. No more, though. I'll have to stock up next Christmas now that I know.
Headed to the doctor with daughter #3, and #4 thinking that dd#4 was worse, but lo and behold, dd#3 has bronchitis. Well, that was a shocker. Here I was thinking that her bout with this virus was on the tail end, but was lingering around just a bit too long.
This all started about 2 1/2 weeks ago when my little fella got bronchiolitis from RSV. Thankfully we were able to avoid the hospital with treatments at home. I'm a natural kinda mama when it comes to medicines and treatments and baby products and stuff, but sometimes medicine is just the only thing that will work.
Well, everyone has gotten some version of this nasty virus, all except dd#1. All in good time, I suppose.
Off to knit and listen to Kelley's weekly podcast in their Knitting Community section: http://www.knitpicks.com/
May the Lord richly bless your day.
Blessings,
Lisa
Headed to the doctor with daughter #3, and #4 thinking that dd#4 was worse, but lo and behold, dd#3 has bronchitis. Well, that was a shocker. Here I was thinking that her bout with this virus was on the tail end, but was lingering around just a bit too long.
This all started about 2 1/2 weeks ago when my little fella got bronchiolitis from RSV. Thankfully we were able to avoid the hospital with treatments at home. I'm a natural kinda mama when it comes to medicines and treatments and baby products and stuff, but sometimes medicine is just the only thing that will work.
Well, everyone has gotten some version of this nasty virus, all except dd#1. All in good time, I suppose.
Off to knit and listen to Kelley's weekly podcast in their Knitting Community section: http://www.knitpicks.com/
May the Lord richly bless your day.
Blessings,
Lisa
Sunday, February 15, 2009
On the last day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Thought I would chat a bit about the projects that I finished for Christmas last year. Unfortunately, I gifted many of these without photographing them...a knitter's mistake that I will never make again. I'm not so great with downloading photos, but I have grand intentions to improve in this and I will be taking photos of my current works otn and posting them shortly. Now as for last Christmas...I knitted socks for hubby (Knit Picks Essential); mistake rib scarf in Thick and Quick; knitted a sweater for my little guy in a stripe pattern I made up as I went along with Peace Fleece wool; bobble ascot for my mom in Knit Picks Alpaca; felted hot pad and four coasters for my brother; random stripe large felted tote bag for my mother in law; felted knitting round "basket" bag for my sister in law; and last but not least, four crocheted aprons for my beautiful daughters. Pattern was from Anna over at Lullabies and Lace. Too sweet. As I began to purchase the yarn for these projects in the early fall, the sweat began to bead on my palms. Was I out of my mind??? To make all of these with a baby in my arms and homeschooling four children through the fall? Well, I did it. I did it. I did it. With about a week to spare. I just couldn't believe it. How, you may ask? I stole the time. Every knitting moment I could find. I never left the house without it. If my oldest daughter ran into the library to pick up an I Love Lucy that she had ordered, I would wait in the car and knit a round or two. I would knit for every car ride that hubby was driving. Yes, even the 8 minutes to church. Then, the sweet time when all were asleep. I would settle down to work with my coffee. Such tasks need high octane caffeine, no mild tea will do for midnight knitting. So, I'm very pleased with myself at the progress that I've achieved in the short time that I've been knitting. I would say it will be two years this summer, and I can say I'm a solid intermediate. Woohoo! Love it. Love it. Love it.
I adore my children and love every minute with them. I love homeschooling and I thank the Lord every day when we begin our day that He has drawn us to homeschooling. I wouldn't have it any other way. That said, there is something about the quietness of the night when all have gone off to bed. My little nursing fella stays down here with me until we go upstairs together later, but the girls head up around 9:00. I don't watch TV really, but I do visit my favorite blogs, research any latest query that has been mulling over in my brain that day, and to navigate around ravelry a bit. I just joined a month or so ago, so I'm still weeding through the vastness of the internet knitting world known as ravelry. Some very inspiring, beautiful, amazing knitters out there, along with some, well, odd people. As a Christian, I am careful with what I put in front of my eyes so I really dislike it when I click on someone's profile to see some of their other projects and there's questionable content and curse words, etc. :( Could really do without that! I've yet to really connect with a particular group yet, I just keep lurking and adding groups to my profile.
I have no other desire in my day to be away from my children. They stay with us during service in church, we don't get sitters for them, and we do most things together as a family. But, there is a refueling of energy and a quietness of my spirit I experience in the solitude of the night.
I notice that there is a similar feeling to the wee hours of the morning as well. I actually have fond memories of coming downstairs with my oldest daughter a few months ago. She was feeling sick, maybe around 2 or 3 AM. I brought the baby downstairs with us, I put National Velvet in, nice and low, and made some tea. These moments call for tea. Some nice English Breakfast or Earl Gray. We sat together and chatted, grateful for the private moments between a growing young lady and a mama. There is something about the mother in this film. Well, firstly, she knits AND she's a thrower like me. There is such a quiet strength about this character. She knows just when to let her daughter's wings fly and when to put her foot down. There is a beautiful scene when she gives Velvet the money for the admissions for the Grand National. It was her own prize money that she won years ago from a swimming race. What a moving scene up in the attic of their beautiful little cottage. This is a movie that we borrowed from the library, but whenever I think of it, I know it's one that we need to own. Just for the memory of that night.
I had to stop a minute because my little fella was giving me kisses...now he's off crawling to play with his sisters and explore the dog's food bowl.
I adore my children and love every minute with them. I love homeschooling and I thank the Lord every day when we begin our day that He has drawn us to homeschooling. I wouldn't have it any other way. That said, there is something about the quietness of the night when all have gone off to bed. My little nursing fella stays down here with me until we go upstairs together later, but the girls head up around 9:00. I don't watch TV really, but I do visit my favorite blogs, research any latest query that has been mulling over in my brain that day, and to navigate around ravelry a bit. I just joined a month or so ago, so I'm still weeding through the vastness of the internet knitting world known as ravelry. Some very inspiring, beautiful, amazing knitters out there, along with some, well, odd people. As a Christian, I am careful with what I put in front of my eyes so I really dislike it when I click on someone's profile to see some of their other projects and there's questionable content and curse words, etc. :( Could really do without that! I've yet to really connect with a particular group yet, I just keep lurking and adding groups to my profile.
I have no other desire in my day to be away from my children. They stay with us during service in church, we don't get sitters for them, and we do most things together as a family. But, there is a refueling of energy and a quietness of my spirit I experience in the solitude of the night.
I notice that there is a similar feeling to the wee hours of the morning as well. I actually have fond memories of coming downstairs with my oldest daughter a few months ago. She was feeling sick, maybe around 2 or 3 AM. I brought the baby downstairs with us, I put National Velvet in, nice and low, and made some tea. These moments call for tea. Some nice English Breakfast or Earl Gray. We sat together and chatted, grateful for the private moments between a growing young lady and a mama. There is something about the mother in this film. Well, firstly, she knits AND she's a thrower like me. There is such a quiet strength about this character. She knows just when to let her daughter's wings fly and when to put her foot down. There is a beautiful scene when she gives Velvet the money for the admissions for the Grand National. It was her own prize money that she won years ago from a swimming race. What a moving scene up in the attic of their beautiful little cottage. This is a movie that we borrowed from the library, but whenever I think of it, I know it's one that we need to own. Just for the memory of that night.
I had to stop a minute because my little fella was giving me kisses...now he's off crawling to play with his sisters and explore the dog's food bowl.
May the Lord richly bless your day,
Lisa
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Well, it's about time...
Well, I thought it was high time that I got around to keeping a blog as it was downright embarassing signing my name to other people's sites and leaving that url space blank. I did keep one when we went to China two years ago when we adopted one of our daughters, and I really enjoyed the outlet of writing, but I haven't written much since then. I used to write all the time, mostly journals. Years and years worth. But, life has gotten so very busy...I'll fill you all in bit by bit.
I have been a born again Christian for almost five years now and I'll share more about how that happened to me in some other day. I am very happily married to a wonderful, loving, blue-eyed man for 16 years and we have five incredible children, ages 13 to 11 months. Four of them are girls, and one little fella.
We are in our ninth year of homeschooling and I tell you, it has been the greatest endeavor my husband and I could have ever entered into. What began as a year-by-year basis has grown to become our identity as a family. We couldn't imagine any other way of educating our children. We love it so very much.
My blog name is Spring Valley Knits. Obviously I love to knit. I had crocheted for about 13 years or so, but it was an off and on hobby. Nothing too adventerous was ever undertaken and it was a neat thing that I knew how to do. Knitting had always scared me. The thought of one of my kids pulling my knitting off the needles sent me into a cold sweat. How could I save something like that? How do you pick up a stitch? Why do I have holes in my work? All these frightening questions kept me from this craft. Then almost two years ago, during my pregnancy, I firmly decided that I was going to conquer this knitting thing. There were just too many beautiful patterns out there for knitting...and there was just something "different" about a knitted garment compared to a crocheted one.
I bought me some dpn's (not so very brave...after all, I had knitted a garter stitch scarf and two children's hats in my lifetime) and some neutral sage green yarn and set to work to make an "easy peasy" baby hat. Pattern somewhere on the internet.
Well, months later, I learned a lot. I learned what a ladder is and why it is undesirable in knitting. Great for roofers. Bad for baby hats. I learned that I was knitting into the back stitch thinking that this was the normal way to do a knit stitch. So I got a nice twisted look to the hat. Couldn't really say "I meant to do that". I learned how to pick up a dropped stitch. I learned to ask a lot of questions to whoever might even look like a knitter. And I learned that I absolutely love knitting. Love it. Love it. Love it. Can't get enough of it, dream of yarn, read about yarn, research about knitting, listen to knitting podcasts, watch knitting videos, wake up dreaming about knitting kind of love. Crochet couldn't hold a candle to this kind of infatuation.
Almost two years have gone by and my passion has not cooled in the least. In fact, although I am a stay at home mama, I have been wanting to have some sort of home business for the longest time. We used to have one, oh, about six or seven years ago, called Ladbug Toys. We sold beautiful wooden, natural toys and dolls. So I have a little knowledge about wahm's, but I just couldn't decide on what kind of business I would want to have longterm. Well, enter knitting. I'm not sure yet what the Lord has planned for Spring Valley Knits, be it designing patterns, or selling beautiful yarns or handmade knitting needles, but keep posted and we'll see!
Well, I'm off to knit and listen to something on-line, maybe a Knit Picks podcast, or Knit Together podcast, or maybe a sermon or audio book. My quiet "coffee and knitting time". My husband just finished doing a "25 Things You May Not Not Know About Me" on his Facebook, so maybe I'll dedicate a future post to that.
May the Lord richly bless your day,
Lisa
I have been a born again Christian for almost five years now and I'll share more about how that happened to me in some other day. I am very happily married to a wonderful, loving, blue-eyed man for 16 years and we have five incredible children, ages 13 to 11 months. Four of them are girls, and one little fella.
We are in our ninth year of homeschooling and I tell you, it has been the greatest endeavor my husband and I could have ever entered into. What began as a year-by-year basis has grown to become our identity as a family. We couldn't imagine any other way of educating our children. We love it so very much.
My blog name is Spring Valley Knits. Obviously I love to knit. I had crocheted for about 13 years or so, but it was an off and on hobby. Nothing too adventerous was ever undertaken and it was a neat thing that I knew how to do. Knitting had always scared me. The thought of one of my kids pulling my knitting off the needles sent me into a cold sweat. How could I save something like that? How do you pick up a stitch? Why do I have holes in my work? All these frightening questions kept me from this craft. Then almost two years ago, during my pregnancy, I firmly decided that I was going to conquer this knitting thing. There were just too many beautiful patterns out there for knitting...and there was just something "different" about a knitted garment compared to a crocheted one.
I bought me some dpn's (not so very brave...after all, I had knitted a garter stitch scarf and two children's hats in my lifetime) and some neutral sage green yarn and set to work to make an "easy peasy" baby hat. Pattern somewhere on the internet.
Well, months later, I learned a lot. I learned what a ladder is and why it is undesirable in knitting. Great for roofers. Bad for baby hats. I learned that I was knitting into the back stitch thinking that this was the normal way to do a knit stitch. So I got a nice twisted look to the hat. Couldn't really say "I meant to do that". I learned how to pick up a dropped stitch. I learned to ask a lot of questions to whoever might even look like a knitter. And I learned that I absolutely love knitting. Love it. Love it. Love it. Can't get enough of it, dream of yarn, read about yarn, research about knitting, listen to knitting podcasts, watch knitting videos, wake up dreaming about knitting kind of love. Crochet couldn't hold a candle to this kind of infatuation.
Almost two years have gone by and my passion has not cooled in the least. In fact, although I am a stay at home mama, I have been wanting to have some sort of home business for the longest time. We used to have one, oh, about six or seven years ago, called Ladbug Toys. We sold beautiful wooden, natural toys and dolls. So I have a little knowledge about wahm's, but I just couldn't decide on what kind of business I would want to have longterm. Well, enter knitting. I'm not sure yet what the Lord has planned for Spring Valley Knits, be it designing patterns, or selling beautiful yarns or handmade knitting needles, but keep posted and we'll see!
Well, I'm off to knit and listen to something on-line, maybe a Knit Picks podcast, or Knit Together podcast, or maybe a sermon or audio book. My quiet "coffee and knitting time". My husband just finished doing a "25 Things You May Not Not Know About Me" on his Facebook, so maybe I'll dedicate a future post to that.
May the Lord richly bless your day,
Lisa
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