Green Scene -- #3

First Sign of Spring -- I can no longer say there are no signs of spring here in the Midwest. Some bulbs are actually breaking the surface! Spring will be here soon!

Village Yarn Shop

Remember my purses?
I'm so happy to announce that my purses are now on display at the Village Yarn Shop in Zionsville. This yarn shop is relatively new to Zionsville, but I hope it will become a fast and firm fixture.

The shop is so beautiful and inviting, and I can't wait for a time to go and just sit and knit.

Colorful, gorgeous yarn is everywhere, and there is plenty of light and open space.

You'll have to let me know if you happen by the shop and see the purses!

First Picnic of the Year

The weather has taken a turn for the better!!!! Yay!!! We can go outside, open the windows, breathe in that fresh spring scent.

Yesterday a picnic was in order!

We have a pond near our house with a rustic-looking shelter. The kids love to play in the woods surrounding the pond.
David was certainly enjoying himself:

Collecting stones:

Finding bits and pieces:

We're wondering if our pond now houses a beaver! We saw possible evidence in a number of places:

Half way through our visit we heard a terrific honking noise and saw a bunch of Canada geese arrive at the pond. I think we might have another nest this year!

I did convince the children to finally eat:

At which point the geese decided to swim to our side of the pond. I was just glad they didn't decide to hop up the bank and bully us.

The kids discovered a deer skeleton, which they were pretty excited about (I'll spare you the picture) and had all kinds of fun playing in the woods. Oh to be a carefree child prancing about in the brush:

As we turned to leave, look what we saw -- how cute!!

The forecast says we'll be enjoying this warm weather at least for another 4 days. I can't wait!

Green Scene -- #2

Green Teacups -- I don't have too many green teacups, but these are among some of my very favorites from my entire collection. They make me think of sea glass -- those beautiful, soft, green bits of glass you find on the seashore. Michael and I found these cups one day in a charity shop and, seeing how much I liked them, Michael insisted I buy them.

For These Tough Times

My pile of books to review on this blog has been growing. It's time to get down to business. To begin with I'm reviewing a book for Thomas Nelson Publishers:

Max Lucado’s book For These Tough Times is a short and concise book for when life hits you with a tragedy, a time of suffering, or some other loss.

In just 79 pages, this book looks at the normal questions that arise during times of difficulty (such as “Where is God?”) and reminds us of what a Christian’s faith is built upon and how that knowledge can help us weather the storm of loss and suffering.

Lucado takes time to review the greatness of God, God’s magnificent love for his children, our need to keep our eyes focused on God in the midst of adversity, the history of Satan and the way God turns evil to work for his purposes, the importance of resisting revenge, the importance of being still before God and waiting, the overarching significance of prayer through any difficult time.

Lucado has condensed a large amount of truth into a small book. This can be helpful for those who don’t like to read, yet need to grasp this material. A deep and thoughtful reader may find herself wishing for more elaboration. At times Lucado’s efforts to make a lot of points in a short amount of time leave him resorting to wit, which may seem too light to certain readers for the weighty matters he is discussing. All in all, Lucado sticks to sound and right theology.

This book could be a good beginning for someone needing to study the Christian path through suffering. It could also function as a guide for someone needing words of wisdom and comfort to offer to a friend in hard circumstances.

Catching Up

It seems like I haven't recently written a post catching you up on our life. We had a quieter week last week, which was good since I was fighting off a cold. I decided to forget going grocery shopping and just eat what we had around. It worked out okay. I got the freezers cleaned out and organized and found some interesting things to eat. We were pretty desperate for fresh green veg and fruit by the end of the week.

The craziest food invention of the week was taking a large bag of dried pears, dried so hard they were impossible to eat, and turning them into pear butter. It was easy. I put all the pears in a big pot with water and simmered them for a few hours. Dumped into the vitamix with a bit of sugar and some spices and out it came looking just like apple butter. Now we have jars, and jars, and jars of this stuff.

My Christmas Cactus is playing catch up too -- wasn't it supposed to bloom at Christmas?!

I hear we are to have warmer weather at the end of the week. I'm looking forward to that! A few good walks will be in order and some fresh air wafting through the house.

I took a friend and her two little ones to the airport this morning. It awoke in me those longings to travel -- that excitement of going somewhere, seeing new things, of high adventure. When we came home prematurely from Uganda when I was 14 I longed to go overseas again. We would drive past O'Hare airport and I would watch the planes overhead and wish for my turn to travel. It was 5 years before that time came. It seemed forever to me.

I'm very anxious to start on my next craft project -- sewing some tea cozies for my Etsy store. Every day I try to get finished with my housework and deskwork, but I never seem to get done in time to head to the sewing closet. One day it will happen.....

Our week looks busy. One or all of us will be out 3 evenings. We have homeschool group as well. I suppose busy is nice, especially when it follows a quieter week.

I did go food shopping today, so we have things to eat like apples and bananas and fresh veggies. My mom was here and made some homemade bread. Yum! yum! It doesn't take long for a family of our size to gobble through a loaf, or two.

Well, it's time for me to do a bit of exercise and then go work with the kids on school. Can anyone advise me on how to get blogger to take my paragraph marks? It's forever lumping my paragraphs into one and I don't know what to do!

Green Scene -- #1

Teapot and Yarn -- two things that go together ever so nicely and make for a delightful afternoon.

Green is my favorite color, by the way, with pink following hard on its heels. You would think, then, that finding green pictures would be no trouble at all. Green seems to be everywhere around me, and yet in subtle ways: the background, the accent, the glue that binds things together.

Today I did find the perfect photo to start this series off. Christina had a lovely green teapot and some scrumptious green yarn she is knitting with just now. It was a treat to pop over to her house today for some tea and a chat.