Cleaning Game Update, Market Bag On The Way!

The mess that Miles made is cleared away and cleaned!! I detangled only the good yarn and just threw away the rest. I know, I know--it seems a waste to throw away this yarn, but they were scrap balls of cotton yarn. They could have been used for something, but I would have been all night detangling them, and I just don't have the time or the energy!!

I did not reorganize my yarn or my closet--that will just have to wait for another day!!

So, Tornado Tuesday is completed, and another $1 to my jar!!

If you'd like to join in on the Cleaning Game, just click on the picture on my sidebar, and it will take you directly to Grammy's where you can read the rules and receive each day's challenge.

And, I LOVE this day's challenge:

Today, the task will be to pamper your self.
It can be as easy as Jump in the tub and relax.
Put your feet up and relax.

Hmmmm.....I'm going to have to try to remember how to do this!! Maybe Grammy really does know me!! Maybe she knows I need to relax a little more than I have been doing!!

Just so you don't think that I've forgotten my Christmas projects in the midst of The Cleaning Game, here is a picture of Lindsay's market bag so far:


This is about 1/4 of the way completed. It goes along pretty fast, so I'm hoping to have this finished and move on to my next Cara project soon. What shall I tackle next?

Off to update my "Love Dare".

K--that's all for a while!!

Beth

Thankful Thursday

Before I begin "Thankful Thursday", I just wanted to let you know that even though I didn't post about this yesterday, I am still continuing "The Love Dare". This has gotten a little more complicated with my oldest daughter now being involved.

I am going to continue posting about this, but it will be posted on "The Power of Your Love" because I really feel that the only way I can do this is through God's power, not my own. I need His power, strength, might and love to lead and guide me in this venture. So, if you want to follow along with my "Love Dare", please stop by and visit there.

Thanks for understanding that I needed to separate this special time for building my relationship between me and and my children.

So, now on to "Thankful Thursday":

This is the verse that Iris has chosen for this Thursday, and it involves friendship:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” ~ Colossians 3:16

I have friends--most of them are new friends. And you may ask yourself why I don't have old friends--friends that I associated with from long ago, people I knew from when I was in school, in college, friends that I had made during the early years of my marriage and when my children were young.

The reason for this is very simple--these are not the friends that God intended for me to have. These are not people that bring out the best in me, have the strength and courage to point out to me where and when I am in error with my life, these are not people that point me to God.

Because of these reasons, God has supplied me with new friends, friends in Him. These are people that do dwell in Christ, and that I can trust to point me in the right direction when I am heading down the wrong path. There are many of you, and I am not going to name you each by name--I would be typing a very long time. But, each of you know who you are and what you mean to me. I will give you an example though:

Any of you who have been reading my posts, know that my biological family has not been communicating with me due to my Christian beliefs. I felt as though I were being persecuted by my own family. I have discussed this with some friends, and they have guided me in the right direction with their encouragements:

"This is why God has given you us, your spiritual family. Sometimes you own family just doesn't come through for you, and that is why you have us."


"You need to move the knowledge that you have about this in your head into your heart and pray that they will soften their hearts regarding this."


and the comment that really sticks out in my mind:


"And who was persecuted for your sake?"

There are many more, and I am thankful today and everyday that God has given me my spiritual family, each and every one of you, to lead and guide me in His wisdom.

I have one more thing to be written about today, and that is what are known as blog awards. I prefer to call these blessings--blessings that others have bestowed upon me from the depths of their hearts--to encourage me, to keep me in God's Word, to keep me seeking His wisdom and not my own.

I have received these blessings both from Peggy and Lorie. I suppose I am doubly blessed today!! I would encourage you to visit both of these wonderful ladies and read what they have written and what is on their hearts! Thank you both for thinking of me today, honoring me with these blessings, and encouraging me in my journey!

I truly am thankful to God for providing me with the friends that He knows will guide and direct me in His path.

If you have a friend that you would like to bless today, please feel free to take one or both of these friendship blessings, and pass them on. Just please leave me a comment so that I know where these blessings are going so I can stop and visit them. Maybe I'll make some new friends!!

If you would like to read more "Thankful Thursdays" or participate, please stop by and visit Iris.

K--that's all for a while!

Beth

Look What The Mailman Brought Me!!

I said I'd be back, and here I am!! The mailman brought me a surprise yesterday, and then again today!! How exciting is this!?!?!

Yesterday, this is what I received:
What is this you may ask? This is my Traveling Scarf!! I started the first section of this back in February!! Then I sent it on to someone in Washington state, who sent it on to someone else, and so on to 13 other people!! I finally received it back today!! While my scarf was being circulated around to the 13 others, I worked on each person's scarf as it came to me!! This was a lot of fun, and I had no idea what this was going to look like when it returned home.

I love it!! Each person used a different stitch pattern, a different color, and it is just outstanding!!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to my scarf, and I really enjoyed working on all the others, too!!

Then, what happened when I came home today?!? I received another package!! This was from my dishcloth exchange partner for September-October, Susan. Here's what Susan sent me:


Two dishcloths that she knitted and a beautiful autumn-themed Hug-Mitt!! The pink and white one really looks like an angel!! And I love that Hug-Mitt!! Do you even know how many times I've burnt my hands (remember the big blister on my thumb from the melted brown sugar?) and arms while cooking?

But, really, this is so beautiful, that I think I'm going to use it as a table runner for Thanksgiving to place hot dishes on. I'll have my son, oldest daughter and some of their friends who unfortunately have no family to share a Thanksgiving. So, we'll make out own family, and we have so much to be thankful for!!

Oh, and I'm having a problem with Day 5 of The Love Dare!! I asked my son to tell me 3 things that about me that either irritate him or make him uncomfortable, and he said he couldn't come up with one thing!!

I told him to think a little harder!!

K--that's all for a while!!

Beth

Love Dare--Days 3 and 4

I wanted to post this yesterday, but Blogger and time got away from me!!

Day 3, if you will remember--buy something for your son that will tell him that you were thinking of him.

Well, you have to realize that my son buys most everything he wants for himself. I had no idea what to buy him. And since, he had my car, I really had no way to go and buy him something!!

I was walking past his bedroom, saw the mess of his laundry laying on the floor. He hadn't had time to take care of this!

So, instead of buying him something, I changed the sheets on his bed and washed, dried and folded all of his laundry. He came home from work to a nice, fresh bed and piles of neatly folded laundry just waiting to be put away.

His comment: That was so nice of you to do this for me. I know you had other things that you wanted and needed to do today. Thank you.

On to Day 4 which I thought would be relatively simple:

Today's Dare

Contact your son sometime during the business of the day. Have no agenda other than asking how he or she is doing and if there is anything you could do for them.

I have already posted this on Chelle's blog, and copied it directly from there rather than retyping everything:

I called my son from work knowing that he hadn't gone to work yet yesterday. This was during my lunch at work.



Conversation (him knowing it is me from his caller ID):

Son: Yeah?? (wariness in his
voice)



Me: Hi! How's your day going so
far?



Son: Why?



Me: Just because I wanted to
touch base with you and see
how your day is going.



Son: Oh, okay.



Me: Well, how is your day going?
Anything interesting happen
today?



Son: No--I'm just going to get
ready for work.



Me: Okay. You be sure and have
a wonderful day at work and
I'll talk to you when we're
both home again.



Son: Do you need something?



Me: No, just wanted to talk a
little before your day began.



Son: You don't need anything?



Me: No, I don't need anything.



Son: (with s sense of
exasperation in his voice)
Okay, if you're sure you
don't need anything, then
I'm going to go.



Me: Alright. I'll talk to you
later. I love you!!



Son: I love you, too. Are you
really sure you don't need
anything? Do you need some-
thing from the store? Do
you need me to do something-
go to the bank, change the
kitty litter? What do you
need? Why did you really
call?



Me: I just called to tell you to
have a wonderful day and
that I love you.



Son: Okay, if you're sure. I'm
going to go. I love you,
too. Bye.

Now, the above conversation took s matter of minutes. But, after this conversation, which I was really listening to (how many times do we really not listen to what the other person is saying?), I realized that the majority of times when I do call my son out of blue, it IS because I NEED something!!


I need him to go to the store for me, I need him to go to the bank, and, yes, change the kitty litter!!



His wariness in the phone call made this all perfectly clear to me! He didn't realize that I could call him just to talk with him, just to say hello--I always call when I need him to do something for me.



And, this made me stop and think. How would I feel if every time someone called me, it was because they only needed something--not because they truly cared about me, wanted to see how I was, just to say "Hi, how are you? I was thinking about you today and I thought I would call you."



I know this is not part of today's dare, but I'm going to call him again today and just touch base with him.



This young man NEEDS to know that I care for him because of who he is and not because of what he can do for me.



What I thought was going to be a relatively simple dare changed into a real eye-opener for me! Hopefully, I can also open his eyes!



And so, we move on to Day 5:

Today's Dare

Ask your son to tell you three things that cause him or her to be uncomfortable or irritated with you. You must do so without attacking them or justifying your behavior. This is from their perspective only.

OUCH!! This sounds like this might hurt a little bit!!

I'll let you know tomorrow how this dare goes.

But, I'll be back later today when I come home from work because the mailman dropped off something yesterday that I've been waiting for--waiting for quite some time!


I didn't have time to take pictures yesterday, so I'll share them with you later today!


K--that's all for a while!



Beth

Love Dare Days 1 and 2

If you will remember, Day 1's challenge was to go through an entire day and not say anything negative to my son!! Well, I made it through!! There was a small moment that I thought to say something about the length of his hair and how he might use a haircut, but, no, I decided against it!!

This is such a small matter, that why would I think to mention it all!

So, on we go to Day 2:

Today's Dare

In addition to saying nothing negative to your son again today, do at least one unexpected gesture as an act of kindness.

This was actually yesterday. An unexpected gesture as an act of kindness? Hmmmm....that doesn't sound too hard either!!

Here is what happened: He was getting ready to leave for work late yesterday afternoon. I wrote a note telling him how much I love him, that I don't tell him that nearly enough. and I asked him to forgive me for my part in our disagreement earlier in the week.

Inside the note I wrapped up two cow tails (I know he loves these!), and I wrote on the note that the cow tails were because I have felt like "cow poop" since all this has happened!!

He never mentioned to me anything about the note or the cow tails, but today when he left for work, he said to me, "I love you, Mutti!!", and I haven't heard that for a really long time!

Today is Day #3:

Today's Dare

Whatever you put your time, energy, and money into will become more important to you. It's hard to care for something that you are not investing in. Along with restraining from negative comments, buy your son something that says, "I was thinking of you today."

Now this is a little more difficult. I have no idea what I could buy him. He has just about everything, and what he doesn't have he buys for himself. I'm going to have to put some thought into this!!

I'll let you know tomorrow how this goes!!

And, remember--mum's the word for those of you who know me and him!!

If you want to follow along with this, just jump over to Chelle's place. She'll fill you in on all the details. All I can say is that this is exciting, but I think it's going to get more difficult as we go along. That's okay with me though!! All I want for my son is for him to know that he is loved by me, is a very worthy person, and that he is not shaped by his past.

K--that's all for awhile!!

Beth

Updates and Something New to Share!

Before I tell you my "something new", I'll do the updates on my previous post.

My headache is finally--completely--gone!! Yesterday was the usual, left-over achy feeling in my head, but at least I was able to function.

My toe--Yes, I did have it checked by one of our doctors at work. She was in agreement that it could have probably used a couple of stitches, but it will heal fine the way it is. Antibiotic ointment and a band-aid--the fix all for this injury.

And, here is a picture of the baby blanket--so far. This isn't the blanket I had planned and almost completed, but I'm liking this one and I'm happy with the results so far:


And, oh, I almost forgot my "kitty tracker"! How could I have forgotten that? Here are the results of this week's efforts--down 3/4 of a pound!! According to my kitty, it looks like another whole pound, but kitties apparently don't understand the concepts of fractions!!

So, now on to something new!!

I was visiting Peggy and read about the "Fireproof - Love Dare Challenge". Now, this was talking mainly about spouses of which I have none :) and :( My question to Peggy, and then to Chelle, who is hosting this study is this "Can this apply to others--my children, my co-workers?" In other words, can this study be useful in all relationships in our lives?

The answer from both was a resounding, "YES!!!"

I am going to be following along with Chelle as she does this study. I'm first going to be applying this to my children starting with my son. There have been some things going on lately that clearly point to the fact that he has not gotten over many things that have happened in his (our) past, and that this is still affecting him today.

I'm hoping to show him that I do truly love him, and with God's love, power and strength behind me, he will be able to see that the past is the past--we cannot change it--and with God behind me in this, how can we fail?

I'm a day behind, but that's okay--just a late bloomer. If you're interested in doing this, hurry on over and visit Chelle, and you can be filled in on all the details.

But, I want to share with you my assignment for the day:

Today's Dare

The first part of this dare is fairly simple. Although love is communicated in a number of ways, our words often reflect the condition of our heart. For the next day, resolve to demonstrate patience and to say nothing negative to your son at all. If the temptation arises, choose not to say anything. It's better to hold your tongue than to say something you'll regret.

I've substituted the word "son" for "spouse" in the above paragraph. And, of course, you can substitute whomever your main concern is with at the moment.

Sounds easy enough, don't you think? I wonder how many times today I'll find myself biting my tongue? I'll be sure and let you know how this goes tomorrow!!

Be sure and visit Chelle for more details and a more in depth description of today's challenge. I'm sure each of us has someone (or many someones) in our lives who could benefit from our changing our attitude towards them.

K--that's all for awhile!!

Beth