Finishing

Happy Sunday evening to you, my friends. I cannot tell you enough how much your support meant to me with my blogger "issues." Teresa helped a lot as did several others of you with suggestions. But the one that finally worked was from Vicki at Stitchy McFloss. She suggested that I change my settings to one post per page. That worked even though I've always been able to have more than one post before. I still don't know what on earth caused this glitch but I'm very happy to have things back and working again. All of you who wrote comments helping and encouraging me mean so much to me. Blogland has really blessed my life and I'm so glad you all come to visit me.

I also appreciate those of you who said you would be praying for me this coming couple of weekends as I undergo CASA training. I really want God's will to be done in my life and if it is helping little ones have a voice in the court system then it's what I want to do.

And now to the newsy part of the post.  I've put a few springy decorations out when the Christmas things were put away.  This makes me hopeful that spring will come back to the Inland Northwest and the mountains around us.  So the first picture is of my little bird collection on a doily I crocheted last year.  This table makes me smile when I see it.  :-)

Today after church services and a yummy potluck, we took a drive up to the lake with our friends Larry & Nita.  The purpose was to check on things after the 65+ mph winds we had yesterday.  I think the real reason in Hubby's mind was to be able to use the 4 wheel drive on his new pickup he bought last year. Along with the winds yesterday we had temperatures in the 40's which melted all of our snow in town, but not at the lake as you'll notice by the pictures. We had to park off the road in an open field and hike in to the trailer as the gates were locked shut.  It was actually a nice quarter mile or so walk and everything was fine when we arrived.  We turned the furnace on, put the slide out and had a cozy couple of hours playing cards and visiting.  I would LOVE to live in the trailer year round but I haven't quite convinced hubby of that yet.  The lake is completely frozen over and yes, we did need to use the 4 wheel drive to get out of the field we parked in.  It was beautiful and VERY quiet there today.

The last two photos are a couple of things I've worked on this week.  The first is a pair of socks that I started on our Japan trip in November.  I got the first sock done and the second done to the heel flap while we were traveling, but set them aside when we got home.  They were meant for me so there was no hurry.  Then I talked to my dear MIL on Friday and she said she has been wearing the socks I made her last year every day since it's been so cold in the Midwest.  She wants another pair ASAP.  So out came this pair and I finished them yesterday for her. I'll mail them to her on Tuesday.  So much for my socks!!!!  Oh well, I can always make another pair for me.

The last picture is the cotton  afghan I'm making whenever I get a chance to add a square.  It will be done when it gets done. No hurry as I have no idea who it will belong to when it's finished.  I'm sure I'll know soon enough who it is being made for.  :-)

I've also been working on the quilt for Mandy's friend.  Her friend chose the colors and I think it looks nice although the bright pink seems to "jump" out at me.  I made the "quilt sandwich"  of quilt, batting and backing and pinned it all yesterday and started machine quilting it.  I didn't get much done though, and hope to do more tomorrow.  It won't be perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it will be made with love just for her, so maybe that will make up for the imperfections.

I'm thinking of making up a Homekeepers Binder.  It would have meal plans for a month at a time in it along with sheets listing different homemaking tasks.  There will be Christmas ideas that I can work on through the year, a page for each person in the family with all of their information on it. (Birthday, anniversary, phone #, favorite colors, etc.). Devotion schedules and a page for prayer requests, etc.

Have any of you done this before and how did it work for you?  It will be nice to have everything organized and in one spot.  One thing I would like to do is have some meals frozen and easy to cook when a busy day comes along.

I want to tell you all again just how much I appreciate all of the help you have given me this week.  Even if you didn't have a specific idea of what to do, you still showed me through your emails and comments that you cared and that means so very much to me.  God has blessed me with each of you in my life and I'm so thankful for that.

Much love and blessings on each of you,

Betsy