When God Provides

I've been thinking it would be nice to get away, but vacations are just not in the budget presently. Fortunately, God can provide beyond anything we can imagine. And He did.

A couple of weeks ago Kurt heard his annual conference would be held at Pensacola Beach. Since we don't technically live close any longer, Kurt's employer reserved a hotel room for Kurt. And invited our family. Yes!

We prepared meals for 3 days so we could easily cook in the hotel room and not have any extra food expenses. We also decided that the kids, who've been sick in succession since before Christmas, could as easily be sick at the beach as at home. So on Sunday afternoon, we headed to Florida.

When God provides, He really provides! Not only did we have a relatively large hotel room at the Pensacola Beach Hilton, but we had a view of the Gulf!



We spent a great deal of time on the balcony watching the sea. What a blessing with the kids being sick to be able to enjoy the sea without leaving the hotel!



Gregory brought his weaving and worked on a scarf for his Dad's birthday (which was Tuesday the 22nd).



This is the way to weave!



We had a nice view of the hotel swimming pools too with all of their fountains.



Both kids enjoyed their quiet time on the balcony. Gabrielle has her bible with the bible cover she got for Christmas on her lap. With it being so cold and Gabrielle being pretty sick, she couldn't spend too much time outside.



Gabrielle spent a great deal of time reading in the big chair next to the window. I spent a great deal of time in this same chair knitting on a pair of fingerless gloves I gave to Kurt (along with a matching hat) for his birthday.



At first the balcony made Michael nervous.



Soon however, he was on the balcony as much as anyone.



In fact, we could hardly keep him off of it.



Michael really grew to love the sea.



He started bringing his toys out on the balcony and I prayed he wouldn't throw anything off. Praise God he didn't.



We all had such a good time. There is nothing like the sea to bring to mind the glory of God. When I think of the beauty of the sea and the beach and remember we live in a wrecked world, I cannot help but wonder what the original creation looked like before the flood.



The kids did a great deal of reading at the beach.



And Gregory, the only one sufficiently recovered, did a great deal of swimming in the indoor pool at the hotel. In fact, some friends of ours came out from Alabama and spent a few hours with us at the indoor pool. The kids loved getting a chance to see their friends while we vacationed. We really enjoyed our time away.

Lousy Dial Up Internet

How pathetic is it when you cannot view your own blog because it has too many pictures? Dial-up Internet is not my happy place. I need to knock some pictures off the main page of my blog so I'm going to do an abbreviated Christmas warm up post with few pictures.



Here is a picture to prove I still knit. Eventually I will post our Christmas pictures. For now I thought it time this blog had some knitting content again.

I knit Michael a sweater and hat for Christmas. I also made him a matching pair of mittens. They are not in the picture because they did not get finished until after Christmas. It seems kinda crazy now to think about giving my kids mittens when we live in the south, but we were reading the "Little House" books and I felt very mittenish then.

The sleeves to the sweater are the perfect length despite what the picture suggests to the contrary. However, I started a pattern that claimed to be just the right size for Michael. I hit gauge. I changed the pattern quite a bit, but I didn't do anything that would affect the length of the sweater. After getting through most of the square patterned panel, I knew the sweater would never fit. And because I didn't get the yarn until a week and a half or so before Christmas and I didn't want to sew on sleeves or do anything too time consuming. (Like starting over.) So for the top of the sweater I completely abandoned my pattern and knit an E.Z. raglan style sweater instead. That made the sweater long enough for Michael but put the patterned block in a funny place. You know what "they" say about necessity. I hunted around in my collection of buttons. I found some cute little alphabet buttons which when sewn above the pattern block, made it's placement look more intentional. Most important, it allowed me to avoid starting over.

For Gabrielle, I knit a poncho, mittens and matching hat.



Gabrielle is not wearing her hat because I didn't finish it until after Christmas. It was a little extra present for after the holidays and not necessarily a late Christmas present.

I knit Gregory fingerless gloves and a matching hat from Lorna's Laces camouflage shepherd sock yarn. Gregory likes camouflage and soldier and hunting stuff.



Kurt received socks once again, which I apparently never photographed. I've done a few other projects as well over the past couple of months, but apparently I forgot to take pictures. Oh well.

Gregory's Birthday

My blog lags once again. I even uploaded pictures to the Internet in December for this post. And the next one. But somehow, I just don't do well with the slowness of our dial-up Internet service, which seems much slower since they raised their rates. Dramatically. That is my story, and I am sticking to it.

Before moving on with Gregory's birthday from early December, I have a cute Michael picture to post.



I found him sleeping on the table after eating either breakfast or lunch. Had I updated my blog timely, I'd have remembered which meal.

Gregory turned 11 back in December.



He hasn't had a birthday party since before the hurricane in Gulf Breeze. I told him we couldn't really afford one this year either. So we found a loophole.



We decided Gregory could have a couple friends over on his birthday (or really the day after his birthday). And we'd let them have a small bonfire.



And hot dogs and marshmallows to roast.



His friends brought presents.



Which Gregory just loved.



Because he got his present from us, a rigid heddle loom, a couple months ago.

More than anything, Gregory really loved spending time with his friends.



And I like sitting in the house knitting with my friend Irene, the mother of one of Gregory's friends.

My mother sent Gregory a scrabble game.



And we cheated a bit and slipped some presents Gregory's way.



We got Gregory a set of DVD's featuring pioneer skills and Gabrielle got Gregory a book light so when he stays up past his bedtime reading, he won't strain his eyes trying to see with just the light from the living room.



I can't believe my little guy is 11. And almost as tall as me. And mom, he IS taller than you now. We measured him yesterday and he is 5'& 2.25".