Slip Sliding Away

As the Christmas season slips rapidly into history, I feel a twinge of pressure about posting my Christmas pictures every now and again. Today, I thought I would at least try to get some of them posted.

I made the most of the Christmas opportunity this year. Before I would let the kids open any presents, their bedrooms had to be perfectly cleaned. I always knew the kids could clean fast if sufficiently motivated.



Here they are waiting, hoping I will not think of anything else for them to do before opening presents.

We started a tradition where we try to make many of the presents we exchange at Christmas. This started in response to our ever increasing need to cut back on expenses and ended up being a really cool thing. The kids and Kurt joined in on it this year with gusto.

Gabrielle learned to piece squares together and hand sewed a pillow for Gregory.



Gregory wove Gabrielle a scarf on his rigid heddle loom with a hand painted warp from Heritage Yarns.



Knowing that I intend to increase my soap making activities, Kurt made me a really nice soap mold (and then for my birthday in January, he made me a matching cutter).



I did my usual round of knitting as posted earlier. Kurt got another pair of socks.



Kurt is funny. When I first took up spinning and knitting and especially sock knitting, he told me not to foist any wool socks on him. Now, not only does he hint around about making him more, but he has started telling his friends that perhaps I can make them some too.



With Michael being so young, we naturally had to get him a few toys. Most of what he plays with actually belongs to Gregory or Gabrielle.



He got a little remote controlled truck since he loves anything in the "vehicle" category.



Michael loves to open presents.



And he looks so cute in the little sweater I made for him.



He is such a cute little guy.



We got the two older kids covers for their bibles.



Gregory got one with Aslan on the front.



And naturally, Gabrielle's is pink.

Everyone (except Michael) got a lap desk.





Here Gabrielle is wearing the poncho I knit for her and the scarf Gregory made for her.



We had lap desks before the hurricane and they are very handy.

The kids also got starter fishing poles (as did Kurt) and they are still waiting for the day their Dad takes them fishing. Poor Kurt is so busy with work and school, fishing just hasn't found its way to the agenda.

Kurt and Gregory also received hunting knives.



Kurt is still wearing the wool sweater I made for him a couple of years ago. For a man who started out saying he never wanted to wear wool, he has been thoroughly converted!



Gregory also has on the hat and fingerless gloves I knit for him in camouflage and looks like a hunter. Unfortunately, the only meat in our freezer, aside from the chicken we raised and the wonderful grass fed beef my sister Wendy sent us from Wellness Meats is deer given to us by other hunters. This year, the men never quite made it out to actually hunt. I think this makes them "arm chair hunters."

Sew and Sew

The sewing bug hit me again a few weeks ago. I made Gabrielle a couple of new skirts for church.



This is one of them. I keep forgetting to take pictures of the other one.

Some of the girls and fathers from church also attended the father-daughter Valentine's Day Dance at Calvary Chapel Gulf Breeze.



I made Gabrielle a new dress for the occasion.



My friend Irene made her daughter a new dress as well. Gabrielle's friend had a pretty dress to wear, but Irene and I thought it would be nice if she had a new handmade one so I made the maroon colored dress for her.



Irene had the brilliant idea of making the fathers ties to match their daughter's dresses.



The coordinating clothes were a big hit all the way around.



Everyone met at the house of Irene's mother in law so we could take pictures by the lake. (Their house is my dream house presently. It is the coolest underground house and overlooks this gazebo and lake.) I really need to work on lighting when it comes to taking pictures.

Michael watched me sew for several days and thought he would join in the fun. I got up at one point so Michael jumped into my seat at the table and pretended to finish pinning the ruffle to the dress.



Michael is a character! In the picture he is wearing the latest jumpsuit I sewed for him. I still have one more cut out. If I am going to sew it, I should hurry up. Winter doesn't last too long around here!

Michael's favorite movie currently is Cars. He got it for Christmas. One day I found him acting out the opening race scene to the movie.



He started by setting up an accident strewn path. He sets one car upside down. As his car, the Lightening McQueen car, races through the accident strewn track, he jumps on the wheels of the upside down car and over the wrecked vehicles on the track all the while hanging his tongue out of his mouth.



Too funny! Television definitely has an impact on kids' behavior.

Of course I've done some knitting lately. I knit a pair of socks for a man at church that broke his ankle. Naturally, I forgot to take a picture. I also started knitting another pair of socks, but frogged them last night. No picture. Then there is my Mom's sweater. One of these days I need to get a picture of that too.

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".