I don't know what to make of this.

The cynical side of me wonders why Jesus is painted as a total Caucasian, but actually that doesn't surprise me. The miracle is in the innocence of this child. Interestingly, her household was supposedly atheist. Who knows? I leave it to you. All comments welcome:)!

And no, folks, I've not gone over the deep end, over the edge or over 55 - yet, LOL:)
A lot has gone on since last I wrote. How to begin? Well, let's see:

The business with that book club was finally straightened out, but it is unlikely I will ever buy a book from them again - I can't afford it, LOL!

I've had some losses - a death in the family, the loss (through suicide) of a client in December, and the death of a brilliant colleague.

I've had some amazing blessings - Baby Johnny's smile and cooing, Ruby's hilarious expressions and Madison's growth. A LOT of books on Kindle and in print, mostly on KNITTING:)

And I've finished, begun and started to weed out as yet undone projects - well, on ravelry I have finally put zzzzz's next to those projects that have been unfinished since, ohhhhh 2005 or so! Ya think? Not that they are all things I want to get done. I just need to be realistic. One project, a stranded knitting item I really really want to do soon, I actually frogged because I realized I had not knitted the steek stitches alternatively and I wasn't going to like the results!

At work, things have been moving along with the usual changes and staying the same all happening at once. The colleague we lost worked for the County, representing the Department of Social Services. She was a fine human being, a terrific attorney and a loving mom. I was not one of her inner circle of friends, but I liked her very much and her loss is a devastating one to her children and the children of others whom she helped to protect. She battled a particularly aggressive form of cancer that would not let her go. It was a short battle, but she fought to the end.

In our family, our son-in-law, D's father died - actually the same date as my colleague. He had just won the battle against lung cancer, but the chemo and radiation that had saved his life, weakened his immune system so severely, that he succumbed all too easily to pneumonia that no antibiotic could touch. He knew he was dying. The docs gave him pain killers and within days he quietly slipped away into death, his family at his side. He had a rough life, and a few problems, which, when his first wife died, caused his six children to enter foster care. But they were with him at the end - all but the one daughter who had died a year earlier. D was the son from his second marriage - the surprise only child that the two of them would have in their 40s. It was quite a lesson to me, sitting there at his funeral. All of those kids, all of those years living with someone else and yet reconnecting with him later - it's a bond that is almost impossible to break. Sure, there are horrible people out there who abuse and abandon their kids, but most of the parents I see at work are not horrible people. Believe me, if they were, life would be so much easier in that I'd know exactly what to do. Sadly, most people just don't know how to be any different. But people can change and they do. So often we don't keep that in mind. In our society, once someone is labeled, he or she remains that in our collective subconscious, and although it can be true, it's not always so, nor is it fair.

The client I will not discuss here. But I will say that her loss is perhaps the greatest because we all feel that something, somewhere failed her. The loss of a child always is the greatest for too many reasons to enumerate. Like the lone little sparrow whose fall to earth is marked by the universal and eternal greatness of the Divinity, the hole left by this young person will be marked by many in small and large ways. I pray that she has finally found peace.

Winter has brought a great deal of sadness, but there are also joys - too many to even remember: the first laugh of a little baby, his big smile when he recognizes his "Gram," those cooing sounds that we can never replicate once we learn to speak, cousins who are learning how to get him to laugh, kids who fill up the kitchen on Sunday afternoons and laugh and talk among themselves, and knitting. And music.

I finished another project for myself. Remember that Aestlight Shawl? It ended up

on the shoulders of a friend who had just lost her mother. So, I of course had to make another shawl. So I finally finished the Bitterroot by Rosemary - a/k/a Romi - Hill. A free pattern and it was a delight to knit. I actually beaded the last few rows as written (what a big girl!) and knit it in Briar Rose Fiber's Sea Pearl Color No. 502. I put a few pics up here. There's nothing so true as knitting with good yarn makes the project fly! This was my comfort project. I actually wore the shawlette (I made the smaller version) to both funerals. It's lighweight, yet provides that little bit of warmth one needs at this cold cold time of year!
You'd think I'd go right onto another as-yet unfinished project, and I have, but of course I've added more. I really needed a hat that would fit properly and then once that was finished, decided to start on a pair of what I think might be gloves if I feel ambitious enough:) I got the pattern off a free Ravelry pattern in what I think was Finnish for Egyptian mittens.

Those are creating a nice little diversion - interesting enough to keep you going, but not so big you lose interest. Besides, I need gloves:)!
The weeks since Christmas have been an embarrassment of riches on the knitting front. First, The Books (and these do not include the patterns and a few books I have on the Kindle:)):

Sweet, huh? This ought to keep me busy for the next few years, LOL:)! I will try to review each of these in the coming weeks. I was also able to pick up the New Zealand Prayer Book (they have some beautiful evening prayers in there) and the 1940 and 1982 Hymnal. And lest you think I'm leaving knitting behind for the contemplative life, I got this DVD:

The companion piece for this (which I received
from one of my DDs for my birthday last year):


I told you it was an embarrassment of riches!
And if that were not enough, I am beginning a new project for S, because the "Buttony" cardigan I was making her has just turned out awful - mostly a yarn issue, definitely not a pattern issue- it's a cute sweater! But I did get some yarn from her to make it. The pattern you see is not the one I'm knitting. She wanted me to do the Owls sweater, but only as a vest. Sure! No prob!

It will be fun to knit this color - I almost never knit autumn colors, so this will be a great diversion. Can't wait to get started. Finally, I found these and don't they come in a cute pouch/container? Hard to believe that little thing carries some 20+ combinations of circular needles, isn't it? Great job, Hiya Hiya!

Tonight is going to be fun. Madison has asked to go to choir practice with me and Nancy (and Mads' Mommy) have given their approval, so we have a fun night planned tonight! Hopefully she won't get bored! A sweater I knit a few years back for Nancy shrunk after an inadvertent trip through the washer and dryer and now I think it will fit Madison - her "choir sweater!"
That's all I have for today, dear 2.5 readers. Until next time, God be with you 'till we meet again!
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