Lily's sweater and other updates from our home...

Hi. It's been awhile.

And I fear I may bore you with more talk of yarn and crocheting and knitting. But that's how I spend my downtime right now. It's my passion right now. It's how I kind of let go of the stressors of the day and lose myself in the busyness of my hands.

I finished Lily's sweater. I love it. And I'm kinda proud of it. :)

And more importantly? She loves it. She's been waiting very patiently to be able to wear it. I stitched on the buttons this morning, so I'm guessing she will be wearing it tomorrow. I really liked the pattern. I only got temporarily stuck at one part, but after messing around and ripping out stitches for about 20 minutes, I finally got it. The rest was smooth sailing.

I've also been diligently keeping at my self-led knitting lessons. I am determined this time around to learn to knit. I really do love crocheting, but I love the different look that knitting offers. I started a motif called "stockinette seed diamonds" over the weekend. I have learned that this knitting thing takes patience and determination, just like anything else.

And the red yarn? Well, I'm glad you asked! That is my Chickadee 100% American wool yarn {in the color "winesap"} that I ordered from Quince & Co. So now that I have Lily's sweater finished, I'm going to start on the sweater vest I'm making for myself.

And should you believe that all I do is sit around and crochet and knit all day, I will say that we continue to be busy with school lessons, laundry, general housework, and I've even started some light spring-cleaning lately. I want to develop a spring cleaning schedule so that I will work on it a little bit each day over the month of March.

Brad and I have also started our dreaming and scheming concerning our gardens and our "homestead in the making." This spring's big project is to put wooden fences up around our raised beds and berry bushes. We're also trying to decide whether or not we want to get chickens for meat this spring. We're definitely ordering more laying hens, but we've been throwing around the idea of meat chickens for a while. We consume a lot of chicken, and I'm very particular about purchasing all-natural chicken meat at the grocery store (we cannot afford organic!) And so raising our own meat chickens, knowing exactly what they're being fed and letting them feed off of our backyard is very appealing to us.

Oh, and speaking of hens! Our little flock now consists of seven laying hens and one very protective rooster. It's so funny how he protects his little brood of three. He still seems intimidated by the four older chickens, but I suppose that will come with time. Brad went out over the weekend and did some rearranging of the chicken coop to allow for more room for the chickens (and for us when we're in there feeding them, cleaning, and gathering eggs.) He plans to do even more expansion work once the weather warms up a bit since we will need to accommodate more hens in the spring.

And if I could also ask you ladies for some prayer? Our son Ian, whom was diagnosed with a seizure disorder back in 2010, well, he's having some more medical issues. His past MRI's have shown deposits in various areas of his brain as well as an enlarged frontal lobe. The neurosurgeon was unsure why the frontal lobe was enlarged; he said it could be a benign mass or a tumor, and we would have to monitor it with routine MRI's. That was last spring, I believe. And now the local doctor is wanting us to make another visit to Children's Hospital since some new symptoms have arisen which she believes could very well be connected.

As I sat in the doctor's office room last Thursday listening to her tell me this, I just felt an incredible amount of peace and calm. I felt God speaking to me these words, "I got this. I got your back." Even in modern English! And I remember thinking that I should be crying and feeling overwhelmed, but I just really felt comforted. God's presence in that room was almost tangible.

And God has spoken to my heart that He loves Ian even more than I do. And Ian was His child before He was ours.

But my thought life has always been a battleground. And I know the tendency I have to let my mind drift off to the worst case scenarios. And so I would really appreciate prayer that Brad and I would be able to remain steadfast and that we would have control over our thoughts. It's easy to let the scary "what-ifs" take over!

Thanks for visiting and reading and have a most blessed day!