Prayers and Promises week 5

Today Bethany has written about this months theme for Promises and Prayers.

She has chosen "grace".

Here is the definition of Grace, found HERE.

Grace: favor or good will. mercy; clemency; pardon.

Here is this week's verse:

Hebrews 12:15 (NIV):

"See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."

January Blankets

Last NICU blanket for this month.

Another Joann's Sensations Boucle Shimmering Pink.

This one is 19 x 22 inches.

I need to make some larger baby blankets for a while, then I will get back to the NICU blankets. They are so fun and easy to make and go for a great cause!!

Thankful Thursday

Today Lynn is blogging about "the unexpected".

This is interesting. I have had some wonderful unexpected things happen to me. I have had some awful unexpected things happen too.

One time (thanks Bethany for reminding me) I found about 57 dollars in a jacket pocket! That was certainly an unexpected gift!!

What unexpected things have you had happen to you??

Today I am thankful for:
* the sunshine!! Even though it is soooo cold out again
* my family
* my warm house
* my faith

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Ephesians 6:12-13
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

January Blankets

Another NICU blanket.

This is made with Joann's Rainbow Boucle Shimmer in Pink. I've made this blanket in blue and it's not my favorite yarn, but it makes a pretty blanket.

It is 17 x 21 inches.

January Blankets

Another NICU blanket.

This is made with Lion Brand Vanna's choice. The color is Sapphire. It's a bright blue and it is pretty. I used about six ounces to make this blanket.

It also measures 18.5 x 21 inches. Same as the last one. I don't really measure these small blankets when I make them. I just crochet the foundation row and when it looks good, I start the blanket. Some are smaller and some are bigger, but I rarely get a lot of the same size. So I was surprised when this one measured the exact same as the last blanket!!

January Blankets

This one is made with Homespun Baby soft violet. It's so pretty!!

Another blanket for the NICU.

It is 18.5 x 21 inches.

January Blankets

Another NICU blanket.

This one is made with six ounces Lion Brand Vanna's Choice.

The color is Magenta.

It is 20 x 22 inches.

Prayers and Promises week 4

Psalm 28:7 (New Living Translation)


The Lord is my strength and shield.
I trust him with all my heart.
He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.
I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.

Do you trust the Lord with all your heart??

Have you ever burst out in songs of Thanksgiving??

Thankful Thursday

Lynn is our host today for Thankful Thursday.

Today I am thankful for:
* being healthy
* my husband who works so hard for his family
* my children
* friends who understand
* the ability to read

It's been another fast week. The little guy and I are a bit under the weather but nothing huge or debilitating. Just some colds and congestion.

It's still winter but it has been mild for the last few weeks. I am enjoying the warmer winter weather.

Hubby has a few days off, I know we will be going out to eat one day while he is home.

It's so good to be out of debt!! For so many years we played catch up with bills, credit cards, car payments and now we no longer have most of that. Just months utilities, house payment etc. It's just so liberating.
I was talking with a friend about being debt free and encouraged her to stick with it. She and her family are on the Dave Ramsey program and are making progress with their debt!

Nothing to exciting coming up for us. I think a quiet restful weekend is in store for all of us!
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Galatians 6:7-8
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

James 1:2-3
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

January Blankets

This baby blanket is for a silent auction for a family that lost the momma. She had just given birth to her fourth child and developed complications that resulted in her death. It is beyond sad and tragic.

It is made with Homespun and the color is Sky blue.

It is 29 x 40 inches.

De- lurking day here......

I found this idea at a blog I read. I thought it was a good idea.

It's de-lurking day in blog land. I would love for you to say hi. If only we could chat over a warm cup-of-tea. Alas, we can't. So won't you please leave a comment instead?

January Blankets

Another NICU blanket.

This is made with Homespun Baby in Soft Lime. It's such a pretty color. I can't find it anymore. Lion Brand has discontinued a lot of the baby colors.

It is 18 x 20.

Prayers and Promises week 3

This week the verse is 1 Corinthians 9:12

If you support others who preach to you, shouldn’t we have an even greater right to be supported? But we have never used this right. We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the Good News about Christ.

January Blankets

Another Charity NICU blanket.

This is made with Homespun Baby in "Carnation". It's such a soft color. I don't have much of it left but it doesn't take much yarn to make on of these little blankets.

This one is 20 X 23.5

Thankful Thursday

Today Lynn has a wonderful blog about "love". I encourage you to go to her blog and read it for Thankful Thursday!

Another week has gone by. The boy started back at school and my husband worked mostly nights this week.

Today I am thankful for:
* my husband having a stable job
* being able to enjoy a meal out together
* redoing our budget and tightening our belts again!
* a full pantry
* my children!!
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James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

1 John 4:20-21
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar:
for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

January Blankets

This blanket is made with Lion Brand Chunky yarn. the color is Lavendar Jazz.

I like working with this yarn for baby blankets. It's a little thicker than Red Heart so it makes a firmer, bulkier blanket.

This is a Granny Square.

It is 22 x 22 inches.

RIP Meip Gies

An incredible and heroic woman for sure.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/6973512/Miep-Gies.html

Miep Gies, who died on January 11 aged 100, was one of a Dutch couple who hid and sustained the family of Anne Frank for more than two years in an Amsterdam attic; later she helped to save Anne Frank's diary for posterity.

She was born Hermine Santrouschitz on February 15 1909 into a German Roman Catholic family in Vienna, but was sent to the Netherlands when she was 11 to escape the food shortages in Austria. The family with which she lived in Leiden gave her the nickname Miep and later adopted her. By the outbreak of the Second World War she was working as an assistant to Otto Frank, the owner of a pectin manufacturing company in Amsterdam.

After the Nazi invasion of 1940, Frank prepared a secret annex behind a swinging bookcase in a room above the firm's offices at 263 Prinsengracht; and in July 1942 the family of four – Otto, his wife Edith and their daughters Margot and Anne – went into hiding, leaving a false trail indicating that they had fled to Switzerland. Soon afterwards they were joined by other Jews, the van Pels family and Miep Gies's family dentist, Fritz Pfeffer – eight people in all.


For two years Miep Gies and her husband Jan, a municipal employee whom she had married in 1941, risked their lives to smuggle in food and provisions and news from outside, begging, buying and bartering what they needed from farmers and shopkeepers. They were helped throughout by her colleagues Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman and Bep Voskuijl.

Miep acted as a confidante for the adolescent Anne, bringing her paper for her diary and, on one occasion, a pair of second-hand high-heeled shoes. The Gies's heroic feat of humanitarianism ended on August 4 1944, when the Frank family were betrayed (by a person whose identity remains unknown), arrested and sent to concentration camps.

When the Gestapo arrived, Miep Gies was at her desk in the office below. She recognised from the voice of one of the arresting officers that he was Viennese, and she managed to charm him, perhaps saving her own life.

She never saw her Jewish friends again but "could tell from the sound of their feet on the wooden steps that they were coming down like beaten dogs".

Later, at considerable personal risk, she went to Gestapo headquarters to try to bargain for their release – but to no avail. Eventually she returned to their hiding place and found Anne's diary, its pages scattered over the floor.

She intended to return it to its author, knowing how important the diary had been to her, and locked it away without reading a word. Nearly a year later, Anne's father Otto returned from Auschwitz. He knew his wife and friends had not survived, but still hoped that his two daughters, Margot, 18, and Anne, 15, had been spared.

Two months later he received a letter that confirmed that both girls had died in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945, less than a month before the camp was liberated by British soldiers.

Miep Gies was with him when he received the news and could not find the words to comfort him. Then she remembered Anne's diary. She took it out of the desk and gave it to him, saying: "Here is your daughter Anne's legacy to you."

Eventually published in 1947, The Diary of Anne Frank became, after the Bible, the best-selling non-fiction book in the world.

Miep Gies recalled Otto Frank's dignified refusal to seek revenge. He declined ever to identify the man who had arrested them, telling her: "Miep, that man may have children. Those children should not have to live with such a thing."

For two years she resisted all Otto Frank's efforts to persuade her to read his daughter's diaries, but eventually relented and was glad that while Anne had invented pseudonyms for everyone else, Miep's name was unchanged.

For the rest of her life, Miep Gies devoted herself to sustaining Anne Frank's legacy, answering letters from all over the world. In 1987 she published a book, Anne Frank Remembered. In it she observed: "I am not a hero. I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did and more – much more – during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the heart of those of us who bear witness."

She was decorated by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands for her heroism and dedication and the Israeli Holocaust museum Yad Vashem bestowed on her the title of "Righteous Gentile". She was also honoured by the German government.

On August 4 every year, the day of the arrest, Miep Gies would shut herself away in her house and see no one. "I act as though the day does not exist. It is my personal memorial to my people," she explained.

In 1996 Jon Blair's film Anne Frank Remembered won an Oscar for best documentary feature. Blair took Miep Gies to the ceremony in Hollywood, and as they were on their way to the awards in their limousine she remarked that she had agreed to come because Anne Frank had always wanted to be famous, and that she had loved Hollywood. Blair took Miep Gies on to the stage when he made his acceptance speech, and the audience gave her a standing ovation.

Jan Gies died in 1993, and she is survived by a son.

January Blankets

Another NICU blanket.

This one is made with Homespun "Sunshine".

It measures about 18 x 22 inches

Prayers and Promises

At the beginning of the year Bethany started "Prayers and Promises" at her blog. She also has chosen a theme for January and that is: THANKFULLNESS.

I am going to post this weeks verse and last weeks verse since I didn't do it last week. Then each Sunday I will post the verse for the week.

Thanks again Bethany!!

This week:
Ephesians 5:4--
"Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving."

Last weeks verse:
Colossians 2:6, 7--
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

January Blankets

Another NICU blanket. They don't take long to make when they are little like these blankets have been. They can be any size really, and the NICU can use them all.

This is made with Homespun Sky blue and white. It's so soft!

This blanket is 16 X 16 inches. It's made with leftover yarn.

The pattern is just a plain old Granny square.

Thankful Thursday

The first Thankful Thursday of the new year!!

This month Lynn at Spiritually Unequal Marriage is our host. Today she is writing about "The Fellowship of the Unashamed".

A prayer from her today!

So today become empowered by the Holy Spirit. Read this prayer aloud this very moment.

"I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go 'til He comes, give 'til I drop, preach 'til all know, and work 'til He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me-my banner of identification with Jesus will be clear."

Today, I am thankful for:
*a warm jacket, it has been so cold here recently
*a new year
*God's grace and mercy that are new each day
*real friends
*learning new things
*my family

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Isaiah 40:31, King James Version

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Ephesians 5:1-2
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

January Blankets

This is a baby blanket made with Jo-Ann Sensations Rainbow Boucle Yarn.

I've made a couple of blankets with this before. It's not my favorite yarn at all but it makes a pretty blanket.

This one is about 20 X 20. It will go to a hospital NICU.

Exercise

A new year of exercising.

We have two machines in our home. A Treadmill and an Elliptical machine.

We have moved the treadmill downstairs and I must admit it is so much easier to walk on the treadmill for thirty minutes while watching a big screen TV.

Or listening to an Elton John concert. Or The Who.

I think this is going to be a good move!!!!

January Blanket

Not really a blanket. It's a scarf for my nephew.

It's 7 1/2 inches wide and 67 inches long.

It's made with Red Heart White and Claret.