Visitors

Happy Thursday!

What a happy day this is! This evening I'm expecting Gracie at http://grayseasailor-onesaylorslog.blogspot.com/ and her sister Carolyn to visit me and stay the night. Tomorrow we're going to Paradise Fibers and, if I can talk them into it, Hobby Lobby. They have been on a wonderful trip to Nebraska to visit family and are now on their way back to Portland, OR. Oh, it's exciting to have Gracie visit me here in Spokane and I'm looking forward to meeting her sister too. Then, next month when I'm in Portland for Miss Piper's first birthday, Gracie, Taci and Teresa and I already have a lunch date set up! The joys of blogland. I'm so happy I made this foray into the interworld! I've made such lovely, lovely friends that I never would have met otherwise. So Gracie and Carolyn have a loonng drive ahead of them today. They stayed in Gillette, WY last night. I figure that's a good 12-13 hour drive. Please pray for safety for them as they travel the mountain passes and all the way across the huge state of Montana.

I've been at the lake all week and have been busy knitting, but I forgot to bring my finished objects home to take photos. I'll try to remember for my next post. I'm working exclusively on mittens at the moment. There are two ladies in our church who are elementary school teachers. They happen to be a mom-in-law and daughter-in-law. Mom teaches at a school with fairly wealthy students and daughter teaches at one of the poorest, if not the poorest schools in Spokane. They give that dubious distinction by the number of free lunches the students receive. Her school is at 86% getting free lunches. She told me last week that when it gets cold the students come to school with no hats or mittens. Ladies, it gets well below freezing here in Spokane. That just breaks my heart. So. I've made myself a goal to knit 100 pairs of mittens by the end of October. In the last week I've knitted 8 pair, so I'm on my way!!!! I've given her a few backpacks that I found on sale and have told her to let me know of any school supplies she needs for her classroom. We're are definitely NOT rich and watch our pennies very closely, but compared to these kids, we ARE rich. It is such a joy to share and give to others.

Now, I'm not saying this to "toot my own horn". I want to encourage all of you to find some small, or maybe big, if it's in the realm of possibility, way to help someone else today or sometime soon. It's easy to give to our families and friends. It's also easy for me to say, "Well, if their parents didn't smoke, or drink, or, or, or...they would have the money to buy this stuff for their kids." It took me a long time to get past that attitude and it still rears it's ugly head sometimes. But, I always remind myself that it's not the little ones who should suffer and then it's easy to give.

Okay. Off my soapbox for the day! I hope I haven't offended anyone by my words but as a fellow blogger said, "It's my blog and I have the right, no, the need, to share what's on my heart." And my heart always goes out to the littlest in our world.

Hubby has Tuesday and Wednesday off next week so we both get to stay at the lake until next Thursday. I'm so happy about that. Although he comes out after work every night, he misses the quiet weekdays there. The weekends when he is there tend to be busier with all of the working people. It's SO quiet during the week, especially at this time of year. The kids are all in school and it's just us old people there.

We went thrifting last weekend to a couple of little places close to our camper and I found these adorable pyrex bowls. I only paid 25 cents for both of them! Apparently vintage pyrex is all the rage right now. They are small. 2 cup and 3 cup sizes and will be perfect to give to Mandy. I told her about them and she seems happy to have them. Perfect for making little meals for Miss Piper.

Okay. I guess I need to get busy and start knitting! Those mittens won't knit themselves. :-) For my American friends, enjoy the last long weekend of summer!

Blessings,

Betsy