WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday

I’ve been wanting to link up to WIP Wednesday for awhile! It was only recently that I purchased an iron and an ironing board and was thus able to return to my quilting. I’ve been alternating between knitting and quilting, enjoying my time with both. Quilting takes place when I have a large chunk of time availiable and knitting is done while watching tv.

My ironing station

What I’m currently working on…

Last night I finished this denim quilt top and now need to add the flannel backing.

I’m also starting a Christmas project. I am so happy to have an entire pile of fabric! Everything is washed, ironed, and ready to go.

And, of course, my kitty decided he had to help. “Fabric? I have to lay on it!”

What’s on my nightstand?

What's On Your Nightstand

Most of November was spent finishing up the Bible in 90 Days. I finished, in chronological order:

  • John
  • Matthew
  • Mark
  • Luke
  • Galatians
  • 1-2 Thessalonians
  • 1-2 Corinthians
  • Romans
  • Acts
  • Ephesians
  • Colossians
  • Philemon
  • Philippians
  • James
  • 1 Timothy
  • Titus
  • 2 Timothy
  • Hebrews
  • 2 Peter
  • 1-3 John
  • Jude
  • Revelation

All month long, I kept thinking I wasn’t reading much outside of the Bible. But now, browsing through my Goodreads reviews, I realize that I finished way more than I thought. Links are to my full reviews.

Christian Fiction

  • The Rose of Winslow Street
    by Elizabeth Camden – 4 stars. Another great read by Camden. If she continues to publish great books, she’ll make my short list of favorite authors.

Christian Nonfiction

  • Midnight in Aisle Seven: Sometimes God introduces Himself outside of church by Jay Lowder – 2 stars. I haven’t finished the review yet but will this week.
  • A Big Life: Ordinary People Led by an Extraordinary God by Peter Hone – 4 stars. I am still working on the review for this book as well but I highly recommend it.

Classics

  • North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell – 4 stars. A thorougly satisfying classic with great themes.

General Nonfiction

  • Twisted Whiskers: Solving Your Cat’s Behavior Problems by Pam Johnson – 3.5 stars.
  • Psycho Kitty? by Pam Johnson-Bennett – 4 stars. A fantastic cat book that helped us curb several behavioral issues in our four year old male.

Secular Fiction

Currently reading

  • The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I was sure this was going to be a difficult book to read. It’s taking me a long time to read but doesn’t require nearly as much effort as I had expected.
  • Think Like a Cat: How to Raise a Well-Adjusted Cat–Not a Sour Puss by Pam Johnson-Bennett

Overall, it was a pretty good month. I can’t wait to see what December brings!

Things you might not know about me

Carrie over at Reading to Know suggested that we answer a few questions to get to know each other better. Sounds like fun!

1. Do you attend church and, if so, what denomination are you a part of?
I am a Seventh Day Adventist Christian, both born into and raised in the church. I was first baptised as a pre-teen and rebaptised shortly after my marriage. My husband and I do not attend church on a regular basis but are trying to be more faithful about attendance. We are still searching for a home church in the Seattle area, trying to find a group of believers who are excited about their faith and want to share it with others.

2. What social issue are you the most passionate about?
Religious liberty. I attend church on Sabbath (Saturday). This is one of the major differences between my denomination and most others. I believe people should be allowed to live according to their convictions and that the government has no business telling people how to live their lives. I will add a caveat that this freedom should never be allowed to infringe on the rights of others, thus the need for civil law.

3. How long have you been married? How many kids do you have, or want to have? Have you ever thought of adopting, or have you?
My husband and I have been married for seven years and have no children. Hopefully we will be blessed with children in the future but that is yet to be determined. Adoption is definitely an option.

My nephew and I

4. What is your greatest personality strength? Weakest?
Hmmm… I believe my strongest personality trait is the strength of my convictions. Sometimes it takes me awhile to determine what I believe is Truth and how God wants me to live. But once I figure it out, there’s no looking back. On the flip side of this, I struggle most with being judgmental of others, mostly when I feel people are being hypocritical. But I don’t know what God is doing in others’ hearts and it’s my job to love, not condemn.

5. What is your favorite Bible verse or passage? Why?
It changes all the time! Yesterday I was studying this passage:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.

Psalm 19:1-3

I think it’s amazing that God tells us about Himself through nature. There’s beauty everywhere and it all testifies to what a powerful Creator we have.

6. Are you a bold and trendy dresser, or are clothes “not your thing?”
Somewhere inbetween. I want to be fashionable but modest, something that I find incredibly difficult to balance. Sometimes I end up looking frumpy because either my options are limited or I don’t know enough about fashion to come up with my own look.

7. Are you a foodie? What makes you love food so?
I LOVE to eat, I love to cook, and I hate doing dishes. I grew up with a rather traditional American diet. My family ate a lot of pasta, hamburgers, meat loaf, etc. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Then I met my husband. He was shocked at how limited my palate was and decided to change that. He started introducing me to Chinese food, Thai, expensive chocolates, and a host of other things. All of a sudden the food world opened up to me and now I love trying different dishes.

Now that I’ve browsed through some of my food pictures, I’m getting hungry…

Menu Plan Monday

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Last week had some successful meals and some not so successful meals.

The successful:

Sloppy Joes

The unsuccessful:

Veggie Red Curry

As far as the Veggie Red Curry is concerned, I think it’s the red curry paste we don’t like. The rest of the recipe was quite good. We’re going to visit the Asian market next week and find a new curry paste to try.

This week’s menu:

Lunch
Tacos
Pitas with hummus, spinach, tomatoes, and fresh basil
Avocado sandwiches
Ramen
Leftover Thanksgiving

Dinner
Pasta
Homemade pizza
Breakfast burritos
Thanksgiving!
Green Curry
Orange-glazed Tempeh (new recipe, didn’t get to it last week)

I plan on posting my Sloppy Joe recipe this week. It’s simple and really tasty!

A finish!

I finished knitting my kitty blanket! Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to catch a photo of the cats actually laying on it.

Close up of the knitting

Here is Fiona checking it out right after I weaved in the ends.

Next up on the knitting queue – a Christmas present for my mom. I will be visiting Joann Fabric this weekend to purchase the needles I need. Thankfully I already ordered and have received the yarn!

Menu Plan Monday

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We are officially back from vacation and I decided to kick off the week with a menu plan. I haven’t joined this link up since January!

Lunch
Morningstar Farms Vegetarian Riblets
Pitas with hummus, spinach, tomatoes, and fresh basil
Sloppy Joes
Avocado sandwiches
Ravioli

Dinner
Spaghetti & Garlic Bread
Burritos
Mexican pizza (new recipe)
Veggie Red Curry (new recipe)
Orange-glazed Tempeh (new recipe)

We are most excited about the Mexican pizza. It sounds really yummy! Hopefully I’ll have some successful meals to report back about.

V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N.

My husband is FINALLY on vacation after working 70-95 hour weeks for the past several months. Nine days of bliss and it’s all comp time!

We have a few plans… exploring Seattle. A bit of shopping. A bit of eating out. And a whole lot of relaxing at home. Vacation!!

North and South

I finished the first title of my Fall Into Reading challenge!

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell – 4 stars

Goodreads description – When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.

One analysis I read said that North and South is an industrial Pride and Prejudice. Looking back on the story and the character development, I can definitely see that the comparison is valid. Margaret seems perfect but struggles with pride, believing that her way of life (the south) is better than that of Mr. Thornton’s (the north). People look at Margaret’s outward appearance and assume she is prideful and cold, not bothering to look beneath the surface.

I love that religion was an integrated part of Margaret’s life, not something she was converted to or something that she only practiced on Sundays. She has to learn to lean on God instead of her own strength, especially as her life is turned upside down and she begins losing things and people dear to her.

Themes

  • To do the right thing no matter how hard.
  • To learn to walk in others’ shoes.
  • To lean on God because your own strength is not enough.

Overall, I thought this was a great book and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to tackle a thoroughly satisfying classic.

Next up – The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Posting Every Day?

I had meant to write a blog post every day this month, even though there were a few things going on like our anniversary, my husband’s birthday, and my birthday. Plus, we’re still progressing through the Bible in 90 Days reading schedule and that takes a good deal of time. Overall, I don’t think I did too poorly with my posting. This will be post #22 in 30 days.

The past few days, I’ve been too busy living life to have time to blog about it. I’ve come to the realization that I spent too much time online and need to control that. I’ve cut out a number of my blog subscriptions, unsubscribed from a ton of email newsletters, and only check Facebook once a day.

I think the biggest change, though, is how I’ve been handling my email. I love emailing with people, reading their responses, and staying up to date with friends. However, my email takes up so much time every day because it’s always open on my computer and I check it every time my email notification dings. Last week I read an article about how humans actually aren’t very good multi-taskers and how this relates to our use of email. The author suggested that we schedule a set time once or twice a day to check email. Deal with it at those times and only deal with it once. Read it and then delete it or reply. If you need to reply later because the response will take time, file it away but schedule a time to write a lengthy reply.

I must say, since I’ve started doing this, my email time has dropped dramatically. It’s so much easier to filter through junk mail once a day and delete/unsubscribe as necessary. It’s a bit harder to respond right away, as I have a tendency to read emails and then respond a week later. But my attempts to get my inbox down to 0 messages is forcing me to write more timely responses. I think this will make me a better time manager as well as a better friend.

Of course, I’ve only been implementing this new habit for the past five days. We’ll see how it pans out in the long term! But so far I’ve really been enjoy the newfound time. I’ve been using that time to catch up on some much overdue tasks, like organizing my recipe book and filtering through that never-ending pile of junk mail. Right now I only have two emails left in my inbox to respond to and that will happen tomorrow. The day is late and my brain is tiring. If I responded now, they would be less than satisfactory. Until tomorrow!