Lessons Learned From Moving
05 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in cleaning, orginization, thoughts
- We have way too much stuff. De-cluttering is my friend.
- Maintenance cleaning is my friend. It will save a lot of time when it comes to cleaning when moving out of a rental.
- It is possible to find a house and get moved in in less than a month.
- When you find out you have to move, start packing right away. De-clutter as you go along. Be willing to part with as much as you can.
- You find out how helpful family and friends are. We could not have completed this move without good friends, our parents, and my sister and brother-in-law.
- Take time to rest. I have been way to tired with this move especially since I still worked my full-time house while moving.
- Local moves can be worse than long distance moves. With long distance you have to be ready to move and have everything packed up, unlike a local move where you can pack a box and move it. Drags the process out way too much.
- God is faithful. He lead us to a great house that we were able to move into right away. We are loving our new place even if it is the same size or smaller. The way the house is laid out is great for us. I love having larger bedrooms and a nice size living room.
Modern Conveniences: Blessings or Curses
20 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
This has been a stressful morning. I have a lot going on right now: a messy, trashed house, lots of dirty dishes to wash, appointments for 2 different kids today that is going to take most of the day, a “surprise” yard sale to prepare for, working the next 2 days. You get the picture.
What did I do as soon as I came down stairs, I got on the computer! I didn’t get a diaper changed, make my kids breakfast, monitor them to try to prevent more messes or wasting of food. Yes, I was doing things I wanted done, but did they need to be done this morning, NO. I really needed to make my kids a good breakfast, hey I needed a good, balanced breakfast with some protein. I needed to get the laundry put away that I had got done yesterday, and I did get some put away.
Modern conveniences are blessings and curses. My washing machine is helpful I wouldn’t have gotten all the laundry done yesterday without it. I line dried most of my clothes yesterday, but when it was late and some of it wasn’t dry yet, I was able to put them in the dryer. I miss my dishwasher at times. It was leaking pretty bad when we quit using it a few months ago. We think it is just the door seal, but aren’t sure. I am finding I don’t mind hand washing dishes, but I miss the convenience of being able to put the dishes in there and coming out clean and odorless.
They can be curses as well, take my example of the computer this morning. I wasted way to much time on there that I could have spent getting my housework done or getting ready for the day. My baby kept asking for my attention and so did the bigger boys by making messes.
Do I wish I lived in the days before many of these conveniences? Probably not. I just need to learn how to be a better steward of my time, know when to say No and when to say Yes.
Ephesians 5:16 (NIV)
Making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
“Run to Jesus!”
26 Oct 2009 1 Comment
in thoughts
This weekend I got to go to the funeral home visitation for a great Christian man who I had the privilege of knowing since I was a little girl, Tom Clark (link to the obituary here). I remember him as a man who loved to study the Bible and share what he learned with others. I remember him encouraging my parents to study the Bible and directing them to resources to help them study.
My mom, sister, brother-in-law and I had the privilege of hearing the family’s story of his death, from his wife. Even now as I am typing this I am starting to tear up. They had gotten the call from the hospital that he was going to the arms of his Savior and were not ready to leave for the hospital at that moment. His wife said after they got that call they were cheering him on to “Run to Jesus, Run to Jesus!” and you know what, I know that he did. Before they could leave for the hospital, they got the call that he was gone. His wife said when she saw him after his death there was such peace on his face. He had fought a long hard battle with cancer, but he is now in his eternal home.
Do I live my life in such a way that I am ready to run to Jesus, if I were to die right now? I am not really sure. I know that I will go to heaven, when I die. Am I living a life that is pleasing my Savior? I hope so and I know there is room for improvement.
Lord, help me be the same light in this world as Tom was and be the example to my kids, family, and friends you want me to be. Amen.
Iphone
09 Oct 2009 Leave a Comment
Russ has a new toy, an iPhone. He has spent the last two days since he has gotten it downloading and trying out different apps. Any sugestions on apps to try out just reply and I will pass them onto him.
Baby Sunhat
02 Aug 2009 7 Comments
in free pattern, knitting
When my nephew was born 1 month ago, I went on a hat knitting binge. I did 3 hats in about 3 weeks. Two for my nephew and one for my 6 month old son. It started with leftover yarn from the first hat I did for my nephew and I wanted to make a sun hat for my son out of the left over yarn. I just struck off and made my own pattern.
I have loved designing this pattern. I knew I was getting close to starting to design my own. I just didn’t know when it would happen.
A word of caution — unless you want a huge hat, don’t use this pattern with sport weight on 6′s. A friend of mine did and ended up with a hat she could wear. I think the elastic of fixation is a key to this hat.
Daniel’s Baby Sunhat
By Autum Smith
US 5 set of 5 double points
US 5 16” circular
Size F crochet hook
Cascasde Fixation – 2 balls (50 grams)
Newborn – Pumpkin & Olive Green
6 months – Poppies & Pumpkin
Gauge 7 stitches = 1 inch
Size Newborn (6 months)
For Both Sizes
Cast on 4
Round 1 Join in the round, as if doing I-cord. K1 f&b of each stitch (8 stitches)
All even rounds 2-20 Knit
Round 3 K1 f&b 8 times (16 stitches)
Round 5 *LRinc K2* repeat 8 times (24 stitches)
Round 7 *LRinc K3* repeat 8 times (32 stitches)
Round 9 *LRinc K4* repeat 8 times (40 stitches)
Round 11 *LRinc K5* repeat 8 times (48 stitches)
Round 13 *LRinc K6* repeat 8 times (56 stitches)
Round 15 *LRinc K7* repeat 8 times (64 stitches)
Round 17 *LRinc K8* repeat 8 times (72 stitches)
Round 19 *LRinc K9* repeat 8 times (80 stitches)
For Infant size
Round 21-23 Knit (3 rounds)
Round 24 *LRinc K10* repeat 8 times (88 stitches)
Round 25-28 Knit (4 rounds)
Round 29 *LRinc K11* repeat 8 times (96 stitches)
Round 30 & following Knit until hat is desired depth about 16 rounds or about 8 inches when hat is folded in half.
For 6 month size
Round 21 *LRinc K10* repeat 8 times (88 stitches)
Round 22 – 24 Knit (3 rounds)
Round 25 *LRinc K11* repeat 8 times (96 stitches)
Round 26 – 29 Knit (4 rounds)
Round 30 *LRinc K12* repeat 8 times (104 stitches)
Round 31 – 35 Knit (5 rounds)
Round 36 *LRinc K13* repeat 8 times (112 stitches)
Round 37 & following Knit until hat is desired depth about 16 rounds or 10 inches when hat is folded in half
For both hats
Round 1 *K2, yo, K2tog* 24 (28) times,
Round 2–4 Knit (3 rounds)
Or
Knit 4 rounds if you do not desire an eyelet row
Brim – change color then
Round 1 *LRinc K4* repeat 24 (28) times (120 (140) stitches)
Round 2 – 3 Knit (2 rounds)
Round 4 *LRinc K5* repeat 24 (28) times (144 (168) stitches)
Round 5 – 7 Knit (3 rounds)
Round 8 *LRinc K6* repeat 24 (28) times (168 (196) stitches)
Round 9 – 12 Knit (4 rounds)
Round 13 *LRinc K7* repeat 24 (28) times (192 (224) stitches)
Round 14 – 15 Knit (2 rounds)
Cast off
Cords: Chain 2 cords and weave through eyelet holes. I overlapped them over the ears, to help hold the hat on better.
Terms
K= knit
K1 f&b = knit 1 front and back
LRinc = right lifted increase (for instructions on how to do see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYOYMJBGxrw)
YO = yarn over
K2 tog = knit 2 stitches together
Note: If you are using K1 f&b instead of LRinc, decrease the number of stitches knitted after the increase by 1.
Fixation makes it easier to close the top of the hat by starting your knitting as I-cord. I just used 2 DPN until I got past the first 3 rounds using K1 f&b , then added in the rest of my DPNs.
I plan on getting this up as a free pdf download on Ravelry soon. If you would a pdf before I get it up leave me a comment and I can email it to you.
Pdf is now available on Ravelry. Finally figured out how to do it! (6/5/10)
No wonder we don’t walk
01 Aug 2009 Leave a Comment
One of the blogs I read just posted a link to Walk Score. Very interesting. I checked a few addresses, our old address that we moved from 2 years ago 78, very walkable. Our current address 6, car dependent. My mom’s address 12, car dependent.
You can definitely tell the difference even that 6 points make between our current house and my mom’s. I did a lot more walking when I lived at my moms and almost none at our current house. BIG excuse for not walking here and pretty legitimate, we live on a busy country road that cars are already going 55 or more by the time they get to our house and we are only 1/2 mile off the highway. It is not safe to take kids walking down the road.
At our old house it was easy to go for a mile or 2 walk . We just had to pick which triangle we wanted to walk. It wasn’t uncommon for us to walk down to the libary or to the convience store. You can tell the lack of easy walking in both Russ and my weight.
We need to get ourselves down to the rail trail to walk. It is only a mile from our house. Of course, we will drive to the parking area nearby.
Russ is home
27 Apr 2009 1 Comment
It has been a good weekend. Russ is home for the hospital. I brought him home with me on Friday evening. We only had Daniel for the night that night. The older 2 boys came home the next night.
We are settling into a routine of sorts. Russ and I are learning to work together on taking care of his basic needs and pain. He is doing very well, in handling the pain. We still have some hurdles to cross in him being able to take care of himself, the big thing being his brace since it is difficult to put on yourself. I don’t think it is impossible, but it is not easy.
Tyler is loving school. He started the day that Russ was moved to rehab. My mom is the Teacher’s Assistant in his classroom, so “Mena” is still taking care of him. Today she was the teacher, since the “real” teacher was out sick. He is so excited about the field trip on Wednesday and getting to ride on a “real school bus.”
William doesn’t have physical therapy as he usually does on Tuesdays because his theapist has other appointments that she had to attend. The in home PT will be here in the morning to work with Russ, though. He started his speech therapy last week, and I am looking forward to see how he progresses with that.
Next week will be another set of changes as I go back to work on Sunday. My sister is going to take Daniel, and I think my mom is going to have the older 2. I told my sister she would have the week off this week, but she is going to end up watching 1 or 2 still 3 days this week as Russ has 2 doctors appointments and I have a class I need to attend for work. I am not working my 12s this week, but I am still taking care of work things.
God is so good to us, while Russ getting injuried was the last thing we would have wanted. I can see how it is working for good and maybe he will come out of this much healthier than he has been. I know it has been good for weight loss, which he needed to do anyway.
