Wow, what a kid...

Since the Pledge of Allegiance and The Lord's Prayer are not allowed in most public schools anymore because the word "God" is mentioned a kid in Arizona wrote the attached


Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.



If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.



Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.



For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.



We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierc! e our noses, tong ues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.



We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.



It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!
Amen

--
http://plurk.com/homeschoolmom/invite

Youth Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser

The youth of our church hosted a spaghetti dinner this past Sunday at our church and it was a terrific testimony to how awesome these kids are. The fundraiser was to help the teens raise enough money to go on a retreat to Bancroft with another youth group.

Here are some pics of the evening. They all dressed in black and white and it was a full service evening with Italian music thrown in for atmosphere :)

Our fine wait staff








Richard and Blake waltzing around after cleaning up


Amy and Emily dancing and being...Amy and Emily :P

It Works!!!!

My little knitting felting machine works great! Both pairs of slippers felted more and they are in the dryer now (no, no I know I probably shouldn't put them in there) because it's soooo cold here, Si's and my feet are freezing. We both want out slippers NOW! lol

I'm also doing up a load of delicates, although I'm not sure if it's still termed delicates with Jay's and Si's in there hehe.

This little baby is gonna be a life saver for me. Whenever I need just a tiny load to do I can throw it in there. It's gonna be especially great for me who cannot go a day without spilling something on myself and staining my shirts. Now I will just spray and throw it in my little personal washer and voila! cleaned without a large amount of water and hydro. :-D

One side effect which I think is good, because I kept them out of a bag (normally to protect your washer you put felted items in a pillow case or some such) they are flufflier and I like that :)

Oh oh oh, I had already posted this but I just had another thought! I can take this camping with me woohoo! No more hand washing in the bathtub woot woot!

It's My Hubby's Birthday Today

Jay turned 37 today. In answer to prayer today, God provided him a better day at work with not too much stress. Plus there was a little recognition for all his hard work thrown in as well to sweeten the day. His manager went out of her way to tell him how much she appreciates everything he does in the department and that she notices how hard he's been working and that he always goes that extra mile.

That was nice for him to hear since he's been feeling so discouraged lately with a lot of weirdness going on (too long a story to go into here).

Anyways, when Jay got home he had dinner, birthday cake and is now just relaxing watching one of his favourite tv series and building lego airplanes, ambulances and tanks with Simon.

Here's a few pics of tonight.

Looky What I Got...

My own personal little counter top felter. I put a request out on Freecycle looking for one of these babies not thinking I'd really have much luck.

Well, guess what!!! I was wrong. I am so excited and so grateful to Linda for donating this baby to me. Right now it's on my kitchen counter re-felting Simon's and my slippers with 3 wooden cars added for extra agitation. It has an agitator that reverses itself automatically and runs for 15 minutes at a time.

I'll let you know how it does.

I'm so excited. (I'm such a geek)

It's an Ice Skate!

I just finished my first KAL (knit along). I joined a yahoo group a little while ago to get some dishcloth patterns and have knit up a couple of them so far. However, I just finished my first dishcloth KAL. It's so much fun!

There are 2 KAL's per month and they send out an email each day for a certain number of days. The email only has a set number of rows for you to knit and you have no idea what the pattern is going to be until you are done, or in my case almost done.

I wish now I'd used a solid colour instead of the multicoloured blue, but oh well, you can sort of see the pattern here :)



In case anyones interested the yahoo site is called Mainly Dishcloths and you can find all the past patterns here.

My daughter is gorgeous and qetting quite creative

in the modeling department lol. It's nothing these days for us to walk in on her posing with the camera either by herself or with friends. She then takes these pics and colourizes them. I love them.

Here are a few of my faves.

Just because I'm her mom and it's my job to boast LOL!!!

Only thing that gets me? She's only 13...why does she look so much older :-P

Some new red slippers

I am really, really hard on my feet. Always have been and probably always will be. Thus the need for some new slippers.

I love my purple slippers. I made them for myself last year and I wear them everyday, pretty much all day when I'm home. Unfortunately, the combination of carpeting and excess weight has played havoc on their little "soles" and they are full of holes.




I refuse to throw them away, there must be something I can do to save them...



So, I took some left over wool and knit myself a pair of red/green with 2 different purple tone soles... eeew on the colour combo but my feet are warm once again lol.
Not the prettiest kids on the block but they'll do for now :-)

Has it really been that long? (Be warned: This is a looong post with many pictures LOL)

I can't believe how busy this past month has been. With all the preparations for Christmas, my dad being hospitalized and all kinds of surprises (good and bad) it's been a very quick month.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and I'm sorry to admit that I will be glad to see the end of an especially painful year. My sister in law was kind enough to point out that since we are getting older and everyone we know and are close to are getting older, the years are going to continue to hold more pain and loss. I love my sil but wow that is not a thought I relish :P

Now, don't get me wrong, it wasn't an all bad year. This year actually held a few wonderful surprises and gifts. My husband came home from Calgary and our marriage is ROCK strong...see my earlier posts if you're interested and not familiar with our past year Post 1 and Post 2 .

Simon's health issues all disappeared over time. There are no heart or lung problems to be found and he's a very healthy happy little boy.

Jay has started a new job with Lowes and while he still needs prayer for confidence in this new role in his life, he is enjoying being out of the elements.

Amy has started singing again and there is the sound of music in our house all the time now.

My dad who was hospitalized this past month came home healed. Praise God! Something so potentially dangerous just disappeared on the doctors and there is no medical explanation. I KNOW the explanation though!

Jay's oldest friend and our best man just had his first child, a daughter, and while the delivery did not go smoothly both mom and child are at home, healthy and happy as well.

Our church has a new Pastor and an awesome wife and kids came with him part and parcel. Amy and the eldest have struck up a friendship that has been an answer to prayer for us. As well, Simon and the youngest have developed a friendship that has been wonderful to watch grow. I am excited to see what the new year will bring in respect to these relationships.

Me, what can I say? I'm down 20lbs, feeling healthier and am migraine free (okay I did have one the other day, blame it on some junk I ate) now for 72 days.

Plus, we have been blessed this Christmas with incredible friends and family and for me a deepening of a friendship that I have been praying for.

Wow all that and I haven't even posted about Christmas yet.

Welcome to Our Christmas!

Christmas Day was lovely. Quiet family time. Just what the doctor ordered, but more about that later...

Christmas Eve on the other hand, lol, not so quiet but definitely family time. All my parents, brother's, sister's, spouses and children gathered at my brother and sis in laws for the afternoon and evening for FOOD, FUN, gifts and much laughter. It was a great time had by all but unfortunately my camera died just after getting there, so I have to wait on sil to email me some pics. Even my kid brother and his fiancee were able to make it with Isabella!

Update 6:04pm ~ My sil just sent me some pics from Christmas Eve

Isabella hugging the big bear we gave her :-)


Niece Emma with niece Isabella


Isabella's mom, Kathy and my brother (the chef) Rob


Chris, Dad, Emma and Isabella


Alex, Amy


Ethan, Simon and Amy


Thanks Chris!


Now that Christmas is over I can show some of the gifts that I had been working on for the past month or so.

First THE SOCKS! Some of you knew about the SOCKS! Oy, I love how these turned out but I will probably never, ever knit another pair of 17" socks in a time crunch again! My sister-in-law Chris, has earned her blue belt in KARATE and I am very proud of her, but this begs the question...what do you give a KARATE geek? (her description, not mine).

Socks of course, because she's been begging me for some and in KARATE belt colours.


The yarn was custom dyed for my by Ann-Marie, all in one skein. A huge undertaking that required me to knit a trial sock from toe to mid foot. Ann-Marie then frogged the sock and had to calculate the exact yardage required for each colour and then dye each part without allowing the colours to bleed into each other. She did a great job and I definitely will look at doing something similar in future (heehee).

The pattern used was a revamped Tidal Wave toe up sock and I used a shiny Merino Tencel.

Thanks so much Ann-Marie for all your help, Chris loved them :-)


I'm smiling here even though I'm suffering through SSS (second sock syndrome)


The finished product.


On display with karate belts.


The other knitting/crocheting projects this Christmas included a couple of beanie hats for Amy, which she ended up getting early to complement an outfit for our church Christmas dinner. I made a lovely little fluffy beanie for my 1 year old niece Isabella, but don't have a picture :-( to show for it.


Felted Slippers for Simon.

This is the pre-felting picture


These things are HUGE before felting. They'd fit Shrek!


The finished felted product. They are still a tad too big for him, so he has to wear socks with them. At least this way he will have them for longer as he grows into them.


I also pulled out my jewelery making supplies and made some wine charms for Chris, Cindy (sils) and my Dad and stepmom.



Swarovski Crystals for Dad & Lin


Precious Stone Chips for Chris


Swarovski Crystals for Cindy


Next on the agenda was homemade soap for all the women in my family (oops Lisa, I forgot to send yours with Anita, will get it to you somehow) :)

My very creative and talented friend Ann-Marie has taught me how to make soap now. I have to admit I have a craving to make more. This indeed can become very very addictive. I have plans to make more in the new year experimenting with shea butters, apricot butters and almond butters. Sounds almost good enough to eat eh?

So here are some pics of my first time making cold process soap at AM's place during one of our girls craft nights.

First a pic of my first mail order stash of coconut oil, castor oil and scented oils


AM & I going over our recipe (I want a soap recipe book toooooo!)


Measuring the ingredients.










My first batch of Maple Vanilla cold process soap :-)


Now, I'm making hot process soap at home!




Doesn't it look delicious?


Poured into the mold, now it looks like fudge (can you tell I'm on a diet and where my mind is these days?)


My first batch of hot process soap in a 'Christmas Eve' scent. Smells more like Dr. Pepper to me though.


More hot process soaps cut and curing


Finally after a few weeks the soaps are ready for gifting. The cold process soaps (on the right) are still here at home curing because they won't be ready for use until the 23rd of January.


I made gift bags for all the girls and tissue wrapped a bar of each of the 4 hot process soap individually. I'm very proud of these little guys.


And now on to our Christmas day.

Simon modeling a new hat and mittens


Amy thrilled with the little Wall-E that Simon bought for her.





These two are HUGE Wall-E fans and got a new calendar for the classroom as well as the movie (thanks Uncle Rob and Aunt Cindy!)


Amy's new coat from "The Garage" ooohhh


Even Cuddles had to get into the stockings


Simon feeling especially grateful that Daddy wasn't leaving for Calgary after this Christmas.


And it only takes an hour to nuke a room...


But who cares eh? at least not me :-)


Thank you Martha Stewart (and Pinot Grigio) for the most moist, delicious turkey I've cooked in the past 18 years!


Christmas Dinner with my dad and Lin.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!