Finished by the eleventh hour

Sorry I missed yesterday's post. Things went a bit hectic after we got an unexpected guest, but after a busy few days, I finally managed to finish my Christmas present.

Due to the fact that my brother got a new car from my uncle (and that the above mentioned guest is a Muslim), I decided to give the men key-chains instead. Still, some of the bookmarks still made it to the tree. As promised, my hand-made presents: 

Our Guest's

My Uncle's

My Brother's

My Brother's (He asked really nicely)

My Mom's

My Uncle's Birthday Present

My Gran's

So there you have it. I managed to make gifts for all of my house-guests without blinding, maiming or otherwise impaling myself. 

The branches in the background is our Christmas tree, but if you really want to see what's going on, you better go check out my other blog. 

Then, I also want to ask you to please pray for a friend of mine. She lost her husband yesterday and is currently fighting a condition that flared up again as a result of the car accident that took his life. 

May you have a Blessed Christmas and a wonderful time with your loved ones.  

This post lacks substance, but at least I'm not vanishing for a day

Today I was going to do another serious-ish post, but I'm so tired I can barely think straight. All because I woke up at 4 am this morning to get some writing done.

I did get about three hours of writing in, and then spent the rest of the day either baking or cleaning. I didn't do these things alone, but the house is really dirty. So much so that I'm wondering why my mother even used to hire a maid, since she apparently had a royal time while not doing a tenth that she'd been paid for.

Well, no matter. As soon as we have the house firmly in hand, it won't be that difficult to keep it that way. But it's difficult when something new comes out of the woodwork every time we think the house is under control.

Sigh...

Still, I'm thinking that all this makes for some wonderful exercise, since we have a five bedroom house. :-)

Unfortunately, I can't really see much in the way of payoff, since we have a black Labrador that loves sowing chaos where once there was order.

What about you? Have any pets that throw your housekeeping into chaos the moment you turn your back?

Guilt

This might sound a little weird, but I'm thinking that I might not be the only one that suffers with this, so I decided to blog about it. 

Guilt. 

It's generally easy for me to dodge most guilt trips from people (with the exception of my family, since they know me too well), but I realized yesterday that no one whips me with guilt more effectively than I do. 

Especially when it comes to my relationship with God. 

See, when I failed that economics test, my faith took one serious wobble. In fact, I'm pretty sure it isn't back where it was before I started studying. 

And that made me feel bad. 

I've been a Christian since I was eight, so when it comes to experience, I'm an old hand at it. So, in my mind, I shouldn't let something like a test knock a dent into my faith that God has my best interests at heart. Now that I think about it, I realize why it happened. 

If I hadn't failed, I wouldn't have felt the need to start a study group and by extension, I would not have spent a profound two weeks where the three of us understood each other deeper than most of our best friends do. It was an experience that I don't regret, except that I don't think that something like that will ever happen again. 

But the point is, it happens because I failed a test. 

Which is all very good and well, but for the weeks after I got the results, I was beating myself up because my faith had shaken because of it. 

But here's what I've come to realize after many prayers: 

1) God wants me to be in a relationship with Him because I love him, not because I feel guilty about it.

2) It's better to use every free moment I have in a day (short, but many of them) in prayer, than trying to squeeze in time in the day where I'm too tired, too asleep, or too distracted to focus on God. 

3) I KNEW this for years now, but lost perspective. Was it pride in my own faith? (Maybe.) Was it the devil's influence? (Probably.) 

4) No matter what, no one's perfect. David wasn't. Peter wasn't. Moses wasn't. Jacob wasn't. Why should I expect to be? God doesn't expect it of me. 

Still, it's a bit difficult to let go of the guilt that I've been clinging to, but luckily God is prying loose my hold finger by finger. Soon I will be free of it and stronger for it. 

What about you? Ever feel really guilty about something in your Faith, only to realize that it's not so important that it deserves the focus you put on it? 

Christmas Presents...

In the end, I decided to move away from the jewelry idea for now, since I never tried something like that before.

Instead, I decided to crochet bookmarks, since all the people who get presents from me either read or read the Bible. 

Clever yes. 

I'm even doing more than one pattern to keep things interesting for me. 

There's only one problem, though... 

I have very neat, tidy and tiny crochet stitches. To say that this is a pain in the backside when using yarn that's thin enough to fit between pages of a book is the understatement of the millennium. 

For one thing, I've crocheted for seven hours and managed to finish one bookmark. 

On my right hand, I can't feel my thumb and my fore and middle fingers are red. My left hand is cramping for some inexplicable reason. 

I may or may not be going cross-eyed. 

I REALLY hope that people appreciate my presents...

What about you? Anyone else making presents this year? Have you finished them/finished buying them? 

P.S. I'll show pictures with links to the patterns soon, in case anyone is interested. :-)

I'm back again (finally)

Sorry for my disappearing act recently. I was actually stuck without electricity for two weeks. Wasn't all that bad, except for the withdrawal symptoms I got because I wasn't on the Internet.

Anyway, I'm really glad to be back. How have you been doing?

As for me: here are the main events:

1) I didn't get the job at the bookstore.

2) I left the church choir after the Christmas Choir Service because I was tired of the three hags that I complained about before.

3) I'm currently being begged to return to the choir next year. I'll think about it in January when I'm not quite as angry as I am now.

4) I'm joining a secular choir in my university town. Next year we will perform with some big names in the local music world.

5) I finally got the libretto that I'm supposed to rewrite. Can't wait to really get stuck in.

6) This Christmas I want to make all of my Christmas gifts. So... I'm going to take up beading for a while. It should be fun to do something else creative. I have no idea what to do for the men in my family though, so I am open to any suggestions that you might have.

7) I am still praying for God to send my the perfect job. He knows better than me what I need.

So... what are your news highlights from the past few weeks?

Any suggestions as to what I can make for the men in my family?