Thursday, September 17, 2015

Lesson My Impact #6: Coffee and Knitting

It turns out, people, that if you order a BOX of coffee from Einstein Brothers (for your office or your long trip home from Florida) and you drink all the coffee and break down the box to recycle it, of course, INSIDE the box is an AMAZING bag.
It's silver.

It's thick enough to keep the coffee warm and away from things that don't need to be wet, but not too thick to push a needle and thread through.



What I am saying is that you can add a strap, people!  This strap can hang on a hook, or even your shoulder.
You can wind a ball of yarn and throw it in the bag, then pull the working string through the hole that the coffee used to come out of.
I know, be amazed.
Now your yarn won't get all knotty!


Then you can start knitting yourself a hat.
Pick one of those mindless patterns where you just go 'round and 'round because, after all, you drank all that coffee so there is none left to help get you through a hard pattern with dropping and yarn-overing and or using a cable to do that cable thing.


Then you can call your friend who works for the Laura Crandall Brown Ovarian Cancer Foundation and find out when they are putting packets together with Chemo Caps and Port Pillows.

Get all of your other friends to make one cap each, a few pillow ports for fun, and Voila! We are caffeined-up happy knitting sewing encouragers for all of our sisters fighting Ovarian Cancer!

Go team!

*If you will knit one chemo cap for an adult-sized head, let me know.

**A port pillow is a small pillow with velcro attached that clasps around the chest strap seat belt in a car so that the seatbelt doesn't press uncomfortably on the port usually embedded to attach the chemo tubing during treatment. Here is a pattern:

http://www.abbieandeveline.com/2014/09/12/my-recipe-for-portacath-pillows/

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Labor Day 2015



I don't love camping.
I love what my family becomes while camping.
See what I did there?  I took something SIMPLE and made it COMPLICATED. It's a spiritual gift.




We went on a 24 hour camp-over at Camp Sumatanga for Labor Day. Usually, when we camp, we have a shaky entry into the "wild" but then everyone calms down a notch and becomes less frantic people. It's beautiful and hard to describe.
THAT DID NOT HAPPEN ON THIS TRIP.




We played basketball, tennis, soccer, Ga-ga (for real), walked and climbed the playground.
I thought, Hey! This is fun! We are all playing together!
For like 27 whole minutes no one was arguing!





Then the wind would change direction and all the sudden this "whole trip is horrible and I am not having fun and she is bothering me again and my ice cubes are not cold enough."
Whaaaa? What just happened?



We have "enormous feelings" in our house (thank you Jen Hatmaker, For The Love) and we are definitely a Spicy Family, as opposed to Sweet ((thank you Jen Hatmaker, For The Love).

Our spicy, enormous feelings are too big even for a campground apparently as it became clear that whatever Husband and I are teaching as "parents", it's not sticking.

Like Jen said, we too are raising feral children who will not contribute to society or be loving and kind to others. (thank you Jen Hatmaker, For The Love). In addition, we are raising entitled whining ninnies who think expressing gratitude is a punishment.



Can you tell I am feeling like a parental failure after forcing my kids into nature, preparing healthy foods, and limiting wifi access for 24 WHOLE HOURS?


We even went by the Nina Reeves Prayer chapel since she is kinda a Huge Big Deal.


I am exhausted.
Husband and I decided to camp without the children next Labor Day.
Just sayin'.