What I Am Learning

One thing I have learned in my walk with Christ is that I am never done learning.  This is discouraging at times because I wonder if I will ever truly be Christ-like.  But it is also so very encouraging! No matter how badly I mess up, how far I wander, or how long I go on ignoring Christ's voice calling me back to him, he is still waiting to teach me some more.  He doesn't give up on me!

So I know it isn't really "New Year" anymore, but it is Chinese New Year today; and since half my heart is in China anyway, this is still appropriate for today!  I was reading in a devotional by Sarah Young called Jesus Calling and I was struck by this (to be read as Christ speaking directly to you),

 "Come to Me with a teachable spirit, eager to be changed.  A close walk with Me is a life of continual newness.  Do not cling to old ways as you step into a new year.  Instead, seek My Face with an open mind, knowing that your journey with Me involves being transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Wow.  I cling to my old ways with fierceness!  It is time to let go of some old ways and be willing to allow Christ to change me through the renewing of my mind.

The next page also talked about bringing my mind back to Him for refreshing and renewal.  I cannot let the thoughts of the trials of the day bog me down, but rather focus on the Lord.  He is my strength!

Psalm 105:4, "Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always." 

Risk, Anyone?

When we were at my parent's house for Thanksgiving, Aaron made an important and necessary step toward manhood - he learned how to play Risk!  That's right, global domination ambitions were set ablaze in his little mind...  bwahahaha....

My dad and brother had the all important task of teaching him how to play.  Even Ian got in on the instruction!

The Ones I Actually Made!

So I didn't actually kill, clean, and prepare my own turkey this Thanksgiving.  In fact, the picture of the live turkey was taken the day after Thanksgiving.  However, I did make quite a few turkeys on Thanksgiving day!  This kind:

 Isn't that cute?  I got everyone in on the fun of making these cookies - whether they wanted to participate or not! :)

Ethan with his first completed turkey!

Aaron with a turkey.

Elise had more patience to keep working on these than any other child.

Ian was very proud of his turkey!

I even got my mom to make one...

"Do you think we escaped the Thanksgiving slaughter?"

Aaron quickly got goofy with his creations...

I had to force Stephanie to participate.  I even had to resort to using her daughter to guilt her into it! But I think she made a mighty fine turkey, don't you?

Before and After

Thanksgiving was a while ago, but since I haven't really blogged since then, you get to relive the joy of Thanksgiving with me!  Here is a before and after of our Thanksgiving turkey:

Before:

After:

I have always *loved* doing things from scratch in the kitchen! *






*The first picture may or may not actually be the same turkey as the second picture. I may or may not have actually prepared the turkey that was eaten by our family on Thanksgiving day.

Something's Not Right Here...

I don't know how long you have been following the two of us Jo's, but if it has been since 2007, and if you followed our other shared blog before the birth of this one, you might remember when I got started creating a Tunisian Crochet blanket to match my *newly* decorated master bedroom.  I was so excited.  For the rest of you (all but Joanna...), you can check out my excitement here and here.  (I had to laugh out loud when I looked at that first post and read Marie's comment about using red text!) Anyway, I got about 3 feet of this blanket crocheted, and then it was summer and I was too hot to crochet a blanket.  Oh, and I got pregnant with my third baby and started a Chinese adoption.  I put this lovely blanket on the shelf and nearly forgot about it.  Fast forward 4 years from the time I started this blanket...I remembered how beautiful it was and how excited I was and thought, "It's never to late to finish a project!" So I got it out and lovingly started crocheting this blanket again.  

I was working on it diligently, but even so I thought it was progressing so much quicker than I remembered! It was at that point that I realized a very important crafting truth: When it has been 4 years since using a skill, one should review the rules and pattern for said skill before trying to pick it up again.

I made so much progress - look!

It looks fantastic until you back up a bit.  Notice a problem?  ::sigh::

Forgetting one simple step causes this rapid reduction in the length of each row!  No wonder I was moving through it so quickly!  I was stitching less and less with each row I made!

So I had to weep and rip out row after row after row, until this is all that is left: 

Yep, you guessed it - about 3 feet of blanket.  Then I got so discouraged, I put it on a shelf and haven't touched it since.  But I did start knitting a pair of socks! (With equally disastrous results...Of course, that is for another post!)