Words and Wool

Here I am, just an hour ago, sitting in the living room, quilt pieces, thread, and fabric strewn everywhere! Rachel and her friends were working on their quilts and I was knitting.

 There being only one sewing machine, the girls soon got the idea to make tiny quilts by hand while someone took a turn on the machine with their big quilt. James decided that looked like fun and he requested plaid fabric and designed his own little quilt. Fortunately, he picked up on backstitch very quickly!

These are the moments I love! To be honest, the huge mess unconsciously grates on my nerves. Sitting down in the middle of the day is hard. The thought of tidying everything up later is annoying. But, the pleasure of sitting with Rachel and her friends, and the other children too, dug out from underneath the mess and schedule that tug at my mind, is very precious. I hope that I can grow more comfortable with the inevitable messes!

Tomorrow I am meeting with friends to cast on this cardigan. Hopefully I'll be able to show progress next week. As of now, I have only 4 swatches to show (yes! four! I'm needing to go down 4 needle sizes!).

On Friday I was trying to get into our history lesson when all the children seemed distracted with the sudden idea that they needed to make giant knitting dollies. I gave in and let them have five minutes to construct them and then everyone knitted away while we did our history lessons. 

As for books, reading time has been somewhat limited of late.

However, tonight I hope to finish Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End by Jennifer Worth. It has been such a great read and I can't wait to read the next book of hers that I can get ahold of!


Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson was also completed this week. I found this book very helpful for giving the whole philosophy of what Christian parenting is about. I found the theology of the book right on. Some of the examples of how to interact with your child will probably not work in my family. But, I think the point of the book, too, is that Christian parenting is not about rules and strategies and step-by-step plans that spit out perfect little kids. Rather, it is about showering your kids with the love of Christ despite their faults, training them for life in the real world, and accepting the fact that God's plan for your family may not be perfect children, or even close to perfect children! I found the chapter on prayer particularly encouraging, as well as the reminder over and over again that God's love for us is based on His love for His Son, not on what we have or haven't done ourselves.

You can find more knitting and reading suggestions at Ginny's Yarn Along.

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