Monday, January 25, 2016

A Snowy March for Life


Praising God that I am home from a whirlwind trip to Washington, DC, for the annual March for Life with some American Heritage Girls during the biggest storm of the century!

Our girls have wanted to make this trip for over a year, and it has been in the plans since October. The weather can always be unpredictable in January, but you can imagine the alarm at the dire weather forecasts for the past week or so!


Thankfully, our departure was scheduled for Thursday, the day before the storm started in DC, and we were on a charter bus with a church group, so we had no ability to cancel and get our money back. Individuals may have backed out, but the bus was going.  We arrived in Washington in good time to take the Metro to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for a beautiful Mass for Life. We didn't lose ourselves or any girls on the subway thanks to our experienced host and matching red hats!

Well-bundled and excited girls headed out Friday morning to meet with Senate staffers at the Senate building before a brief walking tour on the way to the rally at the Washington Monument. It was awesome to see so many religious sisters and priests and brothers in their habits on the way to the rally!


The snow began precisely at one with the beginning of the March, and it was snowing heavily by the time we reached the Supreme Court. No one cared about the snow; the atmosphere was joyful and determined to end the scourge of abortion in our country because life is truly beautiful in all its forms.


Saturday we awoke to about 20" of snow, closed Metro, and no sightseeing to do. That was sad, but our snow-starved Georgia girls did play in the snow for a while before taking a walk through Georgetown. Fortunately, blizzard force winds didn't begin until around three, so we had all the time outside that we wanted! We had a couple of group meetings in the lobby that were very beneficial, discussing the March and our impressions, and then meeting the founder of PATH (Post abortion Treatment and Healing). That was very informative for the girls---and her, too, since she didn't know about AHG!


Leaving on time on Sunday was very much in the air, and we ended up leaving at noon instead of 8 a.m. giving us a verrry long day! It was a great trip and I am so happy and proud that we didn't cancel and we were part of the smaller-than-usual, but determined crowd. There were approximately 50,000 marchers while there are normally 500,000-800,000! (Not that you would know that from watching network, mainstream news. They steadfastly ignore the March or show tight shots without giving any hint of the true size of the peaceful, loving demonstration!)

I hope you know that marching and hoping to repeal Roe v. Wade is not an indictment of post-abortive women. We love them and want the best for them, and we want to create a culture where life (and the amazing, unique ability of women to GIVE life) is respected. We don't want more women to experience the pain of abortion and its aftermath; we want them to give life to their children, and if they can't raise them, to give them to one of the millions of loving couples experiencing infertility.

A couple of other good reads for you: The Remedy for Legal Abortion at Like Mother, Like Daughter, and what to do if you Can't Make the #Marchforlife


^And this girl is beautiful! She was so excited about the snow and spent her 14th birthday on a bus. Bless her little heart! 

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Sock Knitting

           

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading and I love sharing my projects and current reads here. I would love for you to join me over at Ginny's every Wednesday to share a single photo of what you are knitting (or crocheting) and reading too! Share your photo on your blog, on Instagram (#yarnalong), or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~




My goal was to finish these socks by yesterday, but no such luck. I've tried, but maybe I underestimated how long it takes me to knit a sock. I thought it was a pair in a week, but it seems to be closer to one week per sock! I also expected them to be shorter than they are turning out to be---the ball of yarn doesn't seem to get any smaller no matter how hard I knit!

Well, I have lots of time for knitting today, so if I don't get distracted by Brooklyn or the crochet project I brought, I might be able to start the second sock. I don't think I will get to wear them for the winter weather this weekend, but I tried!

Oh, and Brooklyn? Loved the movie, loving the book as well.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Friday Funday Quick Takes



~Linking up with Kelly at This Ain't the Lyceum. Drop in for more Quick Takes. ~



I seem to be having such a hard time getting back into the blogging groove! I guess because it's Birthday Month around here, and after Christmas we've been celebrating birthdays and doing a lot of planning for American Heritage Girls. It's been fairly busy and I'm hoping to take down the Christmas decorations tomorrow! Today, though, I thought I would give you a little snapshot, or seven, of what my day has been like. :-)

  1. 8:00 a.m. Dropped off Pip for school after an extra-long, extra-rainy drive. Seriously yucky weather, and I'm really disappointed in Google for telling me that today was just going to be 'cloudy'!
  2. 9:00 a.m. After sitting in the car at Chik Fil A, in the pouring rain, knitting and checking FB for an hour while Meg sleeps, it's time to try to rouse her!
  3. 10:00 a.m. I've had coffee and hash browns and she is working on her homework while I check my blogs, email, and work on my sock.
  4. 11:00 a.m. We've chatted with the lovely, German hostess for a little bit about knitting and local yarn shops, and Meg is about out of work to do. She still has math, but her old-fashioned, wooden pencils broke and don't come with replacement leads.
  5. 12:00 p.m. In lieu of math, we have spent the last hour planning an AHG event that she is in charge of executing. We've researched, come up with an email, a flyer, a schedule of events, and even put together a crossword puzzle for one of the activities. I love online puzzle makers! They have always added a little extra fun to homeschooling. So, now we'll order a little lunch for Pip and myself before heading out to school. (Meg ate at some point in the morning!)
  6. 1:00 p.m. We delivered Pip's lunch, and Meg has her 2 Friday classes, art and drama. I wait. Usually, I walk with a friend and then knit the last hour or so. Today was just knitting and chatting with other moms and admins.
  7. 4:00 p.m. Finally home and fried from my long, tiring day! It would be better if I had gotten that hourlong walk in, but alas. When I got home my Fitbit read 748 steps!!!! It's going to be really hard to hit 10,000 today! Even yesterday's 12,000+ won't make up for that.
I hope your day was sunnier and filled with much more movement than mine. Tell me what you did today. Have a great 3-day weekend!

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

An Epiphany Yarn Along


~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading and I love sharing my projects and current reads here. I would love for you to join me over at Ginny's every Wednesday to share a single photo of what you are knitting (or crocheting) and reading too! Share your photo on your blog, on Instagram (#yarnalong), or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

Happy New Year!

Blessed Feast of the Epiphany!

Happy birthday to my 4th child who turns 20 today!

I feel as if I have been in a cave----a Christmassy cave, but a cave, nonetheless---since December 25! Visiting with family, celebrating, unwinding from all the activity and stress before Christmas (and during Christmas) has been great, but I have been avoiding most responsibilities, email, and the outside world, in general. I have this tendency to turn inward and let everything else go in order to focus on family or the holiday.

Annnd, now we are back to the real world! All the decorations are still up and I love it. Saturday afternoon we will probably take down the sad-looking, needle-dropping tree, but everything else will likely wait until I have spare moments here and there. I like to linger over the process, if I can.


Oh, but you stopped in for a Yarn Along, didn't you! I started (and restarted) (and restarted) this Age of Brass and Steam kerchief with a skein that I got for Christmas. It's Madelinetosh tosh dk in the Steam Age colorway---which I thought very appropriate for the Brass and Steam kerchief. What's funny is that I got a skein of sock yarn from Malabrigo in almost the exact same colors! That one is wound up into 2 balls ready to start a pair of socks for moi.


Lately, I've mostly been reading magazines at night since we just got a subscription to InStyle magazine. Over Christmas I listened to The Girl on the Train which was a very good mystery. Rachel, the girl on the train, has a miserable commute to and from London every day and makes up a story about a couple who lives near the tracks at one of the stops. She sees them often enough that when the woman of the house disappears, Rachel has some help to offer the police. I would be interested to see it made into a movie if someone could do justice to the voyeuristic perspective offered and keep the mystery going. I was pretty surprised by the outcome!

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