Thursday, January 28, 2016

Snow Pictures

Here are some of the pictures of the snow in my neighborhood.

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On the right of this photo, behind the building, between the second light pole and the tree is the road to my house. It looks like the snow covered hill. Very little traffic went up the hill. Again, love my 4wd SUV.

Snow Days

Before the snow, I had fun at our local sock club. We meet the third Saturday of the month at Dunkin Donuts and have a wonderful sit and knit. This is a pic of the assortment of project bags that were on the table in January.

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We had a wonderful 9" snowfall at the end of last week and this was after a brief icy snowfall on Wednesday. We've been out of school for 7 days. Even though my roads were clear Monday night, county roads were still iced over three days later. It was one of those winter wonderland snows and I enjoyed watching it snow all day long. The snow and ice did cause us to miss one night of the Redeemed taping. I can't wait for the bible study to come out. I know it will be wonderful.

My church has an always open policy and I was slotted for media team on Sunday. They decided to have the later service so I had plenty of time to drive in. I left extra early because I wasn't sure of the road conditions. There was a freezing fog that morning and it was gorgeous to look at but not quite fun to drive in. Once I was on the state highway all of the roads were clear. Driving down the interstate was just amazing. The trees were absolutely gorgeous.

Lots of volunteers and staff had come to campus on Saturday and cleared the south parking lot. The road leading to the church was completely clear of snow. The city road leading to the church campus was icy but I had no trouble getting to church. It was the first time I had ever put my car in 4wd and I have to say I'm very proud of how well my Nissan Rogue did on the iced and snowy roads.

While I've been off for the snow, I've done lots of knitting. I finished a pixie hat for the new fairy grandbaby, made my sister a new hat, made a pair of baby mittens, started a new pair of socks and started the Yowza Weigh It Shawl in Miss Babs Perfectly Wreckless colorway. My hands are wrists are a little tired from all of the knitting. But that's ok. Here a few pictures of my accomplishments.

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Sunday, January 17, 2016

Mid January

The month is speeding by and back to school has made my brain numb as well as my body tired. I've only done a little knitting and reading but it feels good. I'm about to start a new knitting project. I wear my Yowza shawls all of the time and I need to knit a few more to add to the rotation. So I'm going to start the Yowza Weigh It Shawl that started the collection.

I'm knitting it in Perfectly Reckless colorway and it is a gorgeous hot pink with grey, green and black shot throughout. I can't wait to get it on the needles. I finished the simple socks with yarn by Kaleidoscope Dye Works and I've worn them once. I think they should have been knit with a larger circumference. They felt fine, but they really stretched out. I'll see how much they bounce back after the first wash. I have put a few pieces in hibernation. I'm actively working on my Drachenfels, my sister's pedicure socks, starting Yowza, seed stitch cowl, and a simple rib hat for sister. I just realized that's three things for sis! She does have a birthday coming up next month. :)

UntitledUntitled The baby sweaters were a hit and one new baby has arrived. I finished the binding on his quilt the day before he came. He was early. Everyone is doing well and he stole my heart the minute he was put in my arms. I cried more than he did. He is the grandson of my dearest friend. She has four children and I've been blessed to be a part of their lives for 20 years. I've watched them grow up and spent a lot of time with them. I don't have an honorary title, but I call their children my fairy grandchildren. He is the first boy with three girls before him and one more arriving in 20+ days.

Next week I am taking part in a Lifeway taping for Angela Thomas-Pharr. This will be my third time to take part in one of her book sessions. The tapings will produce the video session for her new study Redeemed. I was in the audience for Brave and Stronger. I can't wait to her watch she is teaching on Redeemed. We will tape for three nights. She will be doing more taping throughout that time and it's always a powerful time. Then next month I'm going to see Priscilla Shirer and Anthony Evans. I know the night will blow my socks off. The last time I heard Priscilla in person she was with Beth Moore and Kay Arthur.  I just realized I've listed my top four bible teachers. Love these ladies and the gift of the word they bring to my life!!!

Off to start the Yowza!

Friday, January 1, 2016

Reading Challenge

I don't normally do well with challenges, but I saw this one on Facebook and decided I liked it enough to try it.
 I'm a reader, a voracious reader. I laughed privately at some of the folks who talk about their reading goals on podcast, blogs or other social media. I know the book numbers seemed high for them, but I was like Pssh I read that many last month. That being said, the list for this challenge will by absolutely no means be the only books I read.

I also have a habit or rereading books. I reread Dee Henderson, JK Rowling and Dana Stabenow often not just annually. I tend to reread Dana's Shugak series more than her others, but I've reread Campbell's series several times and I currently have her science fiction series ready to go in my iPad. I'm not a science fiction fan, but I like her writing a lot.

My GoodReads books list really needs to be updated. I don't do a good job listing what I'm reading. I will go through two or three rounds of books from the library and never put them on any list. I may try to put all of my 2016 reads in this year because I'm curious as to how many books I read a year. I need to figure out how to put in books I'm rereading and how to tag books with a year read. I've been unsuccessful in getting books that I've stopped reading off my bookshelf in GoodReads. I've created a shelf that is just for that purpose, but apparently I have to also have the book on one of the default shelves.

I already have the first book from the challenge picked out. For some reason I started  Robert Galbraith's The Cuckoo's Calling when it was first published and when the news came out that it was actually JK Rowling, I stopped reading it. As I said, I reread her Harry Potter series every summer, it's usually how I start my summer break. But I really didn't like her first adult book The Casual Vacancy, it just had too much cursing in the first few chapters and I wasn't impressed at all.  I was afraid to continue with the book. But a friend who isn't a Rowling fan suggested I read what is now the series. She'd picked it up not knowing it was writing using a pseudonym. I am going to restart the book tomorrow.