In the Margins

My hope for this week's post was to show you toys and socks and fingerless gloves, all on my needles because this should have been a light week in the mornings and evenings. There should have been a little more "margin" in our lives this week...you know, a little white space around the edges where we could take notes and just rest up a bit. However, on Monday night this was my view:

As it turns out, the bellyache that Sweetie had had all day, was not just a bad burrito. So, rather than sleeping peacefully and feeling much better on Tuesday, we took a trip to the ER. There they determined that this was the problem...

Yep, that's an appendix, and not a particularly healthy one. Turns out that surgery was the plan for Sweetie on Tuesday, so we spent that day in the hospital too. When he was out of surgery, he was eager to go home to recover...but first he had to keep down some "food" (or, you know, jello), which he did rather quickly, yay.

Much to our surprise, we then learned that an appendectomy means a 2-4 week recovery, even when done laparascopically! Take it very easy, no lifting anything over 10 pounds, heavy medication while the post-surgery pain persists. So our last few days have been spent medicating and finding comfortable positions for sleeping, sitting and stifling the pain. Extra pillows have been a plus, but boredom has reigned supreme for the poor guy! Apparently, one can only watch so much television...

Too bad he is not quite bored enough to learn to knit...I could have him work on some Christmas gifts for me while I am at work! Perhaps he will be bored enough for that next week...lol! At least I finished this cutie in time for her appearance at a birthday gathering before the appendix of doom made itself known!

All in all, even with the hiccup that a bad appendix has brought to our lives, we are still thankful that it was not anything worse. God is still good, and he got Sweetie in before the situation was dire, even though it has been very painful. We are thankful that the appendix did not burst, and that the surgery did not recover more days of hospital recovery. We are thankful that he was healthy enough for surgery, and that there were no complications. We praise God that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and we are thankful to live in this age of modern medicine. 

Now, to get back to the knitting and napping that can make Saturday such a lovely day! I hope that you have some leisure, some margin, planned into your day and your weekend, and that your margin is not surgery induced!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Not a Fan

Last night, the hubs and I went to the annual Apple Festival in our town. This is something we look forward to every fall, and we have gone often enough that we can now walk straight to our favorite food trucks, and fill up on apple goodies! My favorite are the apple fritters...(cue drooling)

One of the other things we enjoy about festivals and fairs and anywhere there are throngs of humans, is the people watching. So. Many. People! Just when you think you have seen it all, there is that one person...wearing fruit on her head, or dancing to the live music while doing handstands, or maybe a one-man-band street musician, performing some of your favorites and doing them justice! (I really wish I had noted that guy's name...he was fantastic!)

But last night, I had an experience that just left me shaking my head. There was a man with something that looked like business cards in his hands, and as he offered one to us, he said something about Jesus that I didn't quite catch...classic Bible tract tactics. As a Christian, I don't think this is the most effective way to share the Gospel, but I can appreciate what he is trying to do, so I smile and say, "No thanks! We're already fans!" 

I thought I was sending the message that we were already his brother and sister in Christ, so we get it. Instead, he replied flatly (and I think quite annoyed), "Don't be a fan, be a follower." Really? Dude! We are on your team!

Again, I am pro-Jesus, pro-Christian and pro-share-the-Good-News. However, I am not a fan of word-tracks, Bible-tracts and I-am-better-than-you-Christianity. I have done my studies, and I know that Jesus has asked us to be more than mere fans, and to follow him...to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbors. I get it, and I am a follower. However, I am also a fan. Just like I am happy when the Cleveland Indians win a record-breaking 22 games in a row (side note: Go Tribe!!!), I am thrilled when there are victories because the love of God is winning.

It is unfortunate when Christians go into the world to share word-tracks without independent thought about the responses they may receive. It is worse when the response is a trite statement implying that the hearer is an idiot. It is devastating for the cause of Christ when Christians cannot even get along with one another in public. The root of this is usually pride, something we are warned against time and again in the Bible, and in the world. And really, who would you rather be around - "Look how good I am!" or "I love you, and I want to know you"?

Christians, if we are to further the cause of Christ, we should be fans and followers, and we must examine how we are sharing the Gospel. Are we just using words? Or are we using our lives by loving others (Christians and those who do not follow Jesus yet), and looking out for their best interests ahead of our own? Even if our worship services look different, if we are followers of Jesus, the world should be able to see that clearly by how we treat others...and how we treat each other. They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love!

As I return you to your regularly scheduled knitting blog, may I ask: What is your life saying about you?

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Lost Naps Found

Sooo, last week I lamented about lost naps. I think I have found them. Here are two examples, right off the top:

As they were napping, I decided to take advantage of the cooler weather, and I did some baking.  With Shaun Cassidy Radio blaring on Pandora, I mixed up some Peanut Butter Banana Muffins 

and Oatmeal Scotchies, and boy! 

Our house smells wonderful! I was eager to grab my kindle and tell you about it, but the nappers were guarding it...lol! 

Now that I have wrestled my electronics away from the cats and blogged, it's time to sit and knit a bit! What a beautiful day!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit (and Bake) in Good Health this fall!

I Need A Nap

My granddaughters are 6 years old and 2 years old. God bless their mommy and daddy! The six-year-old has not taken a regular nap for some time, but she will still occasionally succumb to the siren song of a midday snooze on a particularly busy day. The two-year-old still needs a daily nap, but she often stubbornly refuses. I am sure she does not get this from her Gramma...

This grandmother has found that a daily, afternoon nap, even if only for a few minutes, is most welcome! In fact, there was a time that I was napping at will, at my desk, at home, at anywhere. Very recently, however, the naps and the nighttime sleeps, are eluding me. =^/ I am getting a LOT of reading done, but the bags under my eyes are growing, and it is increasingly difficult to focus on my knitting. I need a nap!

Alas, as long as I cannot nap, let the gift knitting begin! Of course, I cannot show you any of it until it is gifted, but rest assured that the Christmas knitting has begun! Maybe this year I will actually be ready for the holidays when they arrive. I have many great ideas for those girlies, whether they are regularly napping or not!

For now, I leave you with this sock. It does not yet have a mate, or even a toe, but it will. Someday soon it will even have a foot to belong to! Until then, let us just marvel that I was able to knit a bleary-eyed sock, without a nap.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope that you get a nap today, and that you will Knit in Good Health!

Young Love, First Love

When I was little, I loved to read. Wait. No. I lived to read! I wasn't a particularly athletic child, and the house I grew up in was not part of a neighborhood with lots of other children to play with, but we had lots of books! I was reading before I went to school, and I drank in the praise of adults who were impressed with my mad skills...it was the beginning of my over-achieving.

As I grew, I found that the books I really loved were how-to books and self-improvement books...all the non-fiction. I also read novels and some historical stuff, but what I really craved was information on how life is done. To give you some perspective on how much I loved books, I used to go to the public library for fun. I would just sit there, reading book after book from the shelves, sometimes not even bothering to check them out or take them home.

In the eighth grade, I met a boy at the library. He also liked to read, and he was the first boy I kissed. He was not a particularly good kisser, but he sure knew lots of stuff and read a lot of books! As these things go in middle school, the relationship soon fizzled, but my library was still there for me, and so I kept reading.

When I first met my husband in the tenth grade, I devoured books about love and dating. I rarely brought these books home, but I stored up knowledge about relationships, and we eventually married. When I was pregnant with my first child, I turned to books and magazines about child development and parenting, and stacked them high on the coffee table for easy access.

Somewhere between the birth of that first child and the business of a young family, my reading dwindled until I was just reading 1 or two magazines a week (along with a LOT of Dr. Seuss!). I found that I didn't really mind, and I took great joy in watching my children grow into readers of everything they could get their hands on, too!

When I worked at the church, I marvelled at Tim's collection of books. Sometimes, when he was out of the office, I would just walk among his books and run my fingers along the spines on the shelves, occasionally taking one down to open it and smell the ink and old paper inside. Sometimes I would even borrow a book, and I would try to find time to read it. Inevitably, as a working mom, I rarely finished a book.

Now that our children are grown, and my life has gone through so many changes, I find myself once again curiously drawn to this first love. Without time to spend in the library on a regular basis, I have turned to my kindle, and I have three books open right now! I still prefer non-fiction, and most of the books on my shelf fall into that category. A new category of both print and digital books that I currently own falls into the knitting realm, and what joy it is to read and knit "at the same time!"

I guess you could say that I have come full circle. Welcome back, reading! I've missed you...where will you take me today?

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit (and Read) in Good Health!