December 2007

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This student mistakes John Cusack for Kevin Spacey.

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. A beautiful day in the neighborhood. Won’t you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor?

Help! I’ve fallen and can’t get up!

Today while youngest kiddo was taking a nap I let the two older kiddos build a gingerbread house. Yes, I’m sure youngest kiddo would have had fun decorating it also but I can only handle so much family fun or I get a headache. That’s how wonderfully motherly I am.

I have always wanted to do this with the kiddos so this year I actually bought a kit and hid it in my room until Christmas break. (Hey, I need something to keep them entertained. What’s better than gingerbread, icing and lots of candy?) (See how motherly I am.)

The kiddos loved it! They had so much fun putting it together and decorating it and for the first time all day they weren’t fighting. I loved it! For the first time they weren’t fighting all day!

We had a lot of fun and next year I will definitely do it again and quite possibly let the youngest kiddo help also. (Please let me still have my headache then because I am so wonderfully motherly.)

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday!

What does one get to put in kiddo’s stockings when one usually doesn’t buy kiddos anything for their stocking because one usually forgets about them like one did this year until kiddos ask when there will be gifts in their stockings? (How’s that for a run-on?)

I could go with chapstick but I just bought them some the other day. I could go with Hot Wheels but they own approximately 50 million of them already. I could buy them more boy Barbies (otherwise known as Action Figures) but I don’t know what boys want. I could get them gift cards but that requires going to the store to purchase them. Wait. I have to go to the store anyway. Drat.

Oh dear. What do I do? Oh well. At least I don’t have to wrap them.

Merry Christmas every one!

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Distant Heart
(Avon Inspire January 2, 2008)
by
Tracey BatemanABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tracey Bateman is the award-winning author of more than twenty-five books, including Defiant Heart, the First in the Westeard Hearts series. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and recently served on the board as President. She loves in Lebanon, Montana, with her husband and their four children.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the second book in the Westward Hearts trilogy, will the promise of a new life out west heal the scars of Toni’s past?

This series tells the stories of three strong women as they struggle to survive on the rough wagon train and lose their hearts to unlikely heroes along the way/ Thin Little House on the Prairie meets Francine river’s Redeeming Love and you begin to get a sense of the riveting historical series that Tracey Bateman has created.

In this second installment, we follow Toni Rodden, a former prostitute who sought to escape her past and build a new life, and a new reputation, when she joined the wagon train. Despite much resentment and distrust from the other women, Toni has finally earned a place on the wagon train and found a surrogate family in Fannie Caldwell and her two siblings. For the first time in her life, Toni actually feels free.

But while Toni once harbored dreams that her new life might include a husband and family, she soon realizes the stigma that comes with her past is difficult to see beyond and that she’ll never be truly loved or seen as worthy. As the trip out west begins to teach her to survive on her own, she resolves to make her own living as a seamstress when the train finally reaches Oregon.

But despite Toni’s conviction that no man will be able to see beyond her marred past, Sam Two-feathers, the wagon scout and acting preacher for the train seems to know of a love that forgives sins and values much more than outward appearances. Will Sam have the confidence to declare his love? Will Toni be able to trust in a God that can forgive even the darkest past? Faith, love, and courage will be put to the test in Distant Heart.

I learned how to knit a couple of weeks ago and so far have made two hats. I started a scarf for myself but got bored with it so I took it apart and started another scarf with a different stitch pattern. Got bored with it and took it apart.

I was bored with hats and scarves I wanted to make something else. I had seen a sock tutorial and the thought of working with more than two needles and double pointed needles at that was something I wanted to try. So off to my local craft store to purchase the needed supplies for a pair of socks.

I Can’t Believe I’m Knitting Socks (Leisure Arts #4083) and Knitting Help was all I needed and I was off making a sock.

Since I do have a family to take care of this sock took a couple of days to make. Hopefully, since I basically know what I’m doing it’s mate won’t take as long.

I am hoping these socks will fit my hubby since I used his socks to measure the foot portion of it.

This is the beginning. It took awhile to get used to knitting with four needles. What I ended up doing is concentrating on two needles at a time and used needle guards at the ends so the stitches didn’t fall off.

Look! I’ve made progress! I can actually see how this will be a sock (this is the leg portion by the way).

Now I’m knitting the heel flap. This is the part of the sock that extends down to your heel. The others stitches are on stitch holders because I don’t need them right now.

I have finished the heel and working my way to finishing the foot portion of the sock.

Yeah! I did it! I made a sock!

P.S. - It was actually easier than I thought it would be.

I’m not exactly sure what this says about me but I am extremely excited about getting together with the girls and knitting.

I have a babysitter (one who can drive so she can get the kiddos in bed and then drive herself home). Okay so the sitter is Grandma. She’s still here for the purpose of watching my kiddos so I can go out.

Yeah! Adult company! I’m so excited! I’m going to have so much fun!

I wonder if I should take any snacks? I’m definitely taking my knitting and might stop on the way there for a coke. That should be snack enough. Something to take care of myself. That’s the kind of tender-hearted person I am. I will be taking a drink for myself as I’m sure the others will have taken care of their selves also.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
What Lies Within
Multnomah Fiction (November 20, 2007)
by
Karen BallABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karen Ball , bestselling novelist, is also the editor behind several of today’s bestselling Christian novels. Her love for words was passed down through her father and grandfather - both pastors who shared God’s truth through sermons and storytelling. Blending humor, poignancy, and honesty, Karen’s writing style is a powerful force for revealing God’s truth. She lives in Oregon with her husband, Don, and their “kids,” Bodhan, a mischief-making Siberian husky, and Dakota, an Aussie-terrier mix who should have been named “Destructo.”

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Nothing’s going to stop Kyla…

until the ground crumbles beneath her feet.

Kyla Justice has arrived. Her company, Justice Construction, is one of the most critically acclaimed, commercially successful companies in the Pacific Northwest. And yet, something is missing. Not until she’s called on to build a center for inner-city kids does she realize what it is: her sense of purpose. Now nothing can stop her, not the low budget, not supply problems, not gang opposition, not her boyfriend’s suggestion that she sell her business and marry him–and most especially not that disagreeable Rafael Murphy.

Rafe Murphy understands battle. Wounded in action, this Force Recon Marine carries the scars–and the nightmares–to prove it. Though he can’t fight overseas any longer, he’s found his place as a warrior in the civilian world. So he soldiers on, trusting that one of these days, God will reveal to him why Rafe survived the ambush in Iraq. That day has arrived.

Kyla and Rafe both discover that determination alone won’t carry them through danger and challenges. When gang violence threatens their very foundations, there’s only one way to survive: rely on each other, be real–and surrender to God. In other words, risk everything…

I finally finished the hat I’ve been working on for hubby. It’s amazing how well something turns out when you follow the directions and use the type of yarn the pattern calls for. Imagine that.

Anyway, I am happy with this hat and hope it keeps his head warm which is the whole point of making a hat.