2007 is coming to an end. I'm excited about 2008.

2007 has been a very challenging year, but there have been many blessings that have come as a result of those challenges.

Probably one of my biggest blessings was the Lord getting me through March. This was year "7", the year, according to they cycle that my anxiety and depression runs, should have been my time to fall back into it. I started praying in just before January and asked others to do the same. March came, twinges were felt, prayers were sent up, and God provided a "diversion" to get me through that time. I am still in awe and amazement! So, despite the challenges that this year has presented-emotionally, physically, and spiritually, God drew me closer and got me through them all!

Other blessings include His guiding me to an area in my life that I've always wanted to go-counseling. It has been one of the most difficult things to do and one of the most rewarding. Despite some huge failures, we've had some successes and we've become forever linked.

There are still many difficult challenges to face ahead in the new year, but God has proven His faithfulness (as He always does) and I'm excited to watch Him work.

I don't often make "resolutions", but I do have some goals for the new year...journaling more, deeper study in God's Word with an emphasis on knowing where passages are located, more study with Beth Moore (what a HUGE blessing those have been!!), more joy, more compassion, more love. (Oh yeah, and lose weight...)

May you all be truly blessed this coming year.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!!

Our sweet nephew's 2nd Christmas, he just turned one a couple of weeks ago. His little life has been upset by things he doesn't understand yet. Pray that God will do a mighty work!!

My niece and her finance. We're excited to help them plan their August wedding. Definitely something to look forward to!

Baby E in his new Dale of Norway sweater. Obviously, he wasn't enjoying it, but we were!

I know that it has been a very long time since I've posted. We have had a very busy fall. Harvest, family things, and general living. Despite some things being pretty tough, God is good! My friend, who's little girl died in February, found out that she was pregnant shortly after that. Well, just over a month ago, she gave birth to a healthy little boy! I finally finished his Dale of Norway sweater (they are very Norwegian-so it was a no-brainer!) I actually did the entire pattern according to the pattern and steeked it the other day. It went much easier than I expected and am looking forward to doing more this way-so much less finishing to contend with!!

This is our old farm truck. It has been sitting without it's engine for quite some time. Hubby and son decided that son needed the learning experience and so they spent much of the winter and summer rebuilding the engine and carb. Just a few minutes ago, son drove it into the driveway!! To many kids don't learn how to work or work with their hands these days, I'm thankful that mine is such a hard worker!

I haven't blogged in a very long time! It's not that life is boring, it's the opposite, and it's not because I didn't want to, it just seemed like every time I sat down to write, I forget everything I wanted to write!

It has been a very busy late summer, one filled with lots of change and challenges.

The biggest change was our church moving from our country building to a bigger building in town. We went from 3 services down to one. I'm praying that God will be glorified in this move and that we will follow His lead.

I'm so thankful for fall, though. I love fall! I love the cooler temperatures, the lack of humidity, the changing colors and football! It's not that I don't enjoy summer, I do, but everything changes in the summer and I enjoy getting back into a routine. We started our next Beth Moore study. That's exciting!! We have 30 women signed up for this one-Believing God. I know that He will work miracles as we learn to believe Him!

He's been driving home some points from several things that I've been studying! We are Abraham's spiritual heirs-it's all over the New Testament! I've often struggled with whether or not we could actually receive the blessings that God's Chosen People, the Jews, received, but we can! How exciting it is to watch God putting it all together! There has been so much more, but it's hard to put it into words. I just know that He is working!

I haven't gotten much substantial knitting done. I spent a couple of weeks knitting blue cords for all the Bible study ladies. Now that I'm done with that, I'm getting the lining in my felted bag, I've been working on some socks and need to get a baby sweater done.

Finally!!! This is my jacket! I started it on 8/5/05 and finished it today!! Of course, I wasn't working on it the entire time, it got put away for over a year, but I decided that I wanted it before fall and I was tired of unfinished things lying around. Now, it just needs to cool off!

Baby T's sweater is done! It's from the Leisure Arts booklet that goes with Debbie Macomber's "Back on Blossum Street". They did their's in pastels, but I had this Patons "Look At Me" variegated and decided to use that. It came out so cute!!

Finally, clue 1 of MS3 is finished!! I am enjoying knitting lace. I'm loving the challenge. It's something new and different and I like how the pattern is unfolding. Time for clue 2.

I wish I could figure out how to get past this "blogger block". All through the day I say to myself, "I should blog about that," then I sit down and NOTHING!!

It's so silly, because we've been having an interesting summer-at least, it's been interesting for me! God has been teaching me a ton of things and bringing freedom in areas that I had pretty much given up on. He's showing me what is sin in my life and how to eradicate it!

Hubby and I celebrated our 20th anniversary last weekend and baby boy turned 17!

I'm tired of politics, it's started way to early and I'm having trouble getting excited by the group that is running.

Anyway, there are dishes to do and things to knit!!

My first prayer shawl is finished and I'm praying that it will be very comforting to it's recipient. She is a dear friend who is facing a daunting trial with her health. I'm so thankful that this worked up quickly and I think it's gorgeous!

In Loving Memory of my step-dad, Kenny
He died 30 years ago today.

I'm also working on Retro Ribs from Interweave's newest sock book. I really like this pattern. I'm using one of my favorite colorways from Regia.

I also decided to join my first knitalong, Ms3. This is awesome. I've never done much lace-weight lace. It's challenging and I'm enjoying it. I chose black Merino Lace and I'm using beads, although they are not showing up very well. (If you click on the picture, it will come up bigger and you'll be able to see the beads.)

Well, despite the fact that I haven't had much time to blog, I have been getting a little knitting done! This is the first 70 rows of "Alix's Lace Prayer Shawl" from Knit Along With Debbie Macomber, Back on Blossom Street. I'm really enjoying this one! I'm using the lightweight Grandma's Flower Garden from Socks that Rock.

This week has been a good week. I was able to get my house clean and actually enjoyed doing it. I was the only one home that day and it made it go so much easier! Our knitting group met that night and we had a nice time. I'm enjoying getting to know the ladies involved. One lady (you know who you are!) brought her granddaughter to learn to knit and she picked it up like nobody's business and she's 8. I was way impressed!!

I was able to get some relaxation in for a couple of days which has just been wonderful. God began telling me on Monday that I needed to get rest and relaxtion and He drove the point home in a big way because the lesson from Breaking Free was on exactly that! She pointed out that if we don't get that rest, we are not in God's Will.

God has been tying so many things together for me lately, it's very exciting! He's using Breaking Free and the Lord's Table right now and I'm often amazed at how the lessons go together. Today's-for both-was on abiding in Christ! So cool!

God has also been educating me lately on "the least of these". He continues to open my eyes to the needs of the mentally ill, the brokenhearted, the captives, and the prisoners. Again, His timing is amazing!

I'm almost done with my sweater for myself, which is very exciting! I'm excited about my next project but I don't want to spoil it, it's a gift for a dear friend!

One more shot of the chopper! It's a nice bike, but I'm not to fond of the rear fender being all one piece with the seat mount. I'm also not to sure about the tank, but I'm looking forward to watching the show (sometime in October) to see the reasoning behind it.

I was pretty intent on the racing action-look at that gray hair!! Thankfully the weather couldn't have been better. They were calling for hot and sunny, but it only reached around 75 and was cloudy with a cool breeze.

Coming around for another green flag!

The winner was Dario Franchitti. He won the Indianapolis 500 this year, also and is Ashley Judd's husband (she was there too!)

This is the tank for the E85 chopper. The paint job was amazing!

Due to the looooonnnnnng line we had to sit in to get into the Iowa Corn Indy 250 today, we are some serious silliness going on amongst the kids! We were very excited to have this big race in our own back yard!

We got to see the unveiling of the Iowa Farm Bureau E85 chopper built by the Teutals of Orange County Choppers. I was thrilled! I love these guys!! They brought me back to my roots so to speak and helped me to understand that I can let my past be an important part of who I am!

Paul Sr took the bike for a ride around the Iowa Speedway.

We were right at the end of the 4th turn and it was exciting to see those cars coming out of that turn at around 180 miles per hour!!

The newest little one, Baby T.

Baby A's baby brother M. He's just adorable!!

Baby A at her 2nd birthday party!! I haven't given an update lately, but she is talking and growing like a weed!

The highlight of my last few weeks!! It's been a very trying, somewhat stressful, yet blessed couple of weeks, but last night was just pure fun and joy! My best friend gave her husband a hotair balloon ride for his 40th birthday. They were finally able to take it last night. We got to take part from beginning to end and really had a good time. They rode for about 50 minutes, but the whole process took about 2 hours 45 minutes.

God is truly doing amazing things in my life and in many of my friend's lives. He is teaching us so much about freedom in Him, obedience to Him, and serving Him.

I'm quite tired and sad. A friend and I were discussing how we can be on a mountaintop and in a valley at the same time. God is truly doing amazing things through the Bible studies I've been working on and the excitement is growing among all the women involved. They are so challenged and convicted and are allowing God to really break the chains that keep them from true freedom in Christ. God has led me to a new way of eating and He's blessed me with 3 pounds gone! He's helping me to come to terms with some things that are not His perfect will, but certainly not out from under His permissive will. He's breaking other women free from legalism, prejudice, judgmentalism and on and on. Oh the mountaintop!

But, the valley is sad right now. It was so hard to go to our family visitation for Grandma Betty. Grandpa Fred is so heartbroken right now. His beautiful bride no longer responds with joy when she sees him. Please pray for him.

In Loving Memory of my beautiful step-grandmother, Betty. She passed out of this world just after 4:00 am this morning. Please pray for her beloved husband of 60 years, Fred and for their children, grand-children, and on. She truly was a darling woman. When we joined their family 10 years ago, she greeted us with open arms.