Happy Thanksgiving 2022

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I hope everyone enjoys a nice Thanksgiving with family or friends. Even if you spend Thanksgiving alone this year, I hope it is good one.

I feel blessed and have a lot to be thankful for, my health, a warm place to live, clothes to wear, food on my table, family and friends, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a testimony of His divinity, knowing that He loves everyone of us regardless of our situations, knowing we are never really alone because He is there, and knowing that all He wants is for us to repent as often as we need and to not give up trying to get it right and to follow him because he never gives up on us.

Please keep those in your prayers who do not have a place to live and less than the basics this winter. I challenge you to make a list of those things you have that you are thankful for and and try to add one more thing each day that you have thought of for the next 5 days and see if you can see more than you thought you had. You might also, if you have the means, make a small donation of money or clothing items to your local homeless shelter, or donate time to a local soup kitchen to help feed those who have less than you for whatever reason. Gratitude is always an uplift, especially in hard times.

Veteran’s Day 2022

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For our Military, who have given service and sacrificed for our freedom!

I would like to take a moment to thank all those veterans who fought in the various wars and “police actions” for our freedom.   Thank you for your service, and thank you to your families for allowing you to do that.

I lost my dad almost 2 years ago but would I would also like to thank my Dad, who was also a Veteran.

Knitting Accountability

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I haven’t done this in a while so I thought I would catch up my blog on my knitting.

I have knit 2 charity hats and one in progress. When I get 4 or 5 done I will take them to the shelter and start on the next batch. They are a simple 2X2 rib stitch with a fold over brim for extra warmth on the ears. They are easy to make and one of my mindless knits when I don’t have the head space for more complicated things and need the peace myself, and they are helping others.

The next 2 pictures are of a test knit that I did. I took a picture of the front and back because the darker front didn’t show the pattern as well as the lighter back (the yarn, Loops and Threads Impressions, is a bulky, slightly fuzzy yarn that fades from dark to light and back again), you might want to keep that in mind if you buy this pattern and make it ;). This is a headband for those that don’t like to wear hats but their ears get cold. The pattern is called Dandelion Headband. It was a fun pattern with an interesting stitch to make the dandelion flowers. You can find the pattern on Ribblr, the designer is Cloud9 Atelier . Ribbler is free but you need to make a account to use it. This is a paid pattern that you can buy, but they also have some free patterns and they have a very interesting online user-active pattern format that I like and my free patterns are on there too. This was a fun knit. I will definitely knit it again.

The last picture is another Tin Can Knits Flax baby sweater, a free pattern, you can find the needle sizes I use here on earlier post. I made a change in yarn because I didn’t want to have to mess with the color management of stripes and having to weave in all those ends lol. I’m using Hobby Lobby’s, Yarn Bee, Warm & Cozy, it’s very soft and in this size (6 months to 1 year) one skein might be all I need, but I bought 2 just in case, no sense inviting “Murphy’s Law”, he’s not our friend. It is acrylic, nylon and polyester, medium weight – worsted). I haven’t made one of these baby sweaters in a little bit an forgot how enjoyable they are to knit (the baby sweaters anyway because they don’t take forever :P).

Hope everyone is enjoying the little bit of a warm up before winter finally gets here. Farmer’s Almanac (see picture above) says it will be a hibernation zone about mid Jan & snow filled this year for my area, how about your area? Wonder if it will be right this year?

RIP Sundance (alpaca) :(

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This is Sundance, one of my son’s alpacas. The little one, with her head on Sundance’s back, is Star Sundance’s last cria (picture taken 2 years ago). My son and his spouse called the vet because she was not feeling well, the vet said it would be kinder to let her go, there wasn’t much he could do to help her and she was suffering, so they let the vet put her down. She was 17 and had lived a good life. My son and his spouse are very sad at her loss, they look at them as pets, I know Heavenly Father is taking good care of her, He loves all of his creations. She was in the first flock he bought when he started to raise alpaca. She was very sweet and had a wonderful fleece. If I am correct she was a show alpaca back in the day (most of those in his first flock were).

Give your pets an extra hug tonight.

Last of the Alpaca Pictures, Fall has Fell and a Favorite Quote from General Conference.

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This is the Yoga with the Alpaca on the Alpaca Farm Days picture that was on Sunday morning. My son-in-law was kind enough to send me one he had taken. It’s fun for everyone including the Alpaca, I think some of them were figuring out how to join in with the yoga and others were enjoying a snack!

The picture on the right is a large beautiful tree showing it fall foliage. The colors on my phone were so vibrant, however my computer screen doesn’t do it justice, hope your colors show up better than my computer. I love fall, but would love it better if it didn’t mean winter is right around the corner, sigh. Winter is when I dream of living in Hawaii or Florida. They are both very expensive, they both have sharks and they both experience hurricanes, but Hawaii doesn’t have large snakes or alligators, tho they do have volcanoes. Choices, choices, choice. Maybe the very cold weather and snow isn’t quite as bad as I thought, though I still don’t like it :P.

Some friends asked me to give several of my favorite quotes from General Conference. But giving several favorite quotes from General Conference was hard because there are so many, and to give several would make this too long of a post, so I will just do one in this blog post.

This was from the 2nd councilor in the Relief Society General Presidency (Women’s organization in our church), Sister Kristin M Yee in the 2nd session on Saturday, (I’m linking the talk in her name, it was so spiritually powerful, I hope you will go listen to it) “To all who are brokenhearted, captive, bruised, and perhaps blinded by hurt or sin, He offers healing, recovery, and deliverance. I testify that that healing and recovery He offers is real. The timing of that healing is individual, and we cannot judge another’s timing. It is important to allow ourselves the necessary time to heal and to be kind to ourselves in the process. The Savior is ever merciful and attentive and stands ready to provide the succor we need.”

We have all felt this way and I was particularly taken by her words that the Savior “stands by ready to provide”, it’s reminding us we need to do something, we need turn to Him and ask for the hope and healing he offers so He may give it to us. May the Lord be with you and bless you according to your needs. Have a great day all!!

General Conference Weekend

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I love General Conference Weekend. It’s in April and Oct every year. It’s listening to wonderful spiritual talks by our Prophet and Apostles and other leaders of our Church. The peace and council ground us and remind us of how much our Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ love us all. We are all brothers and sisters and knowing that helps in a sometimes chaotic world. We are here learning lessons of forgiving and serving others like our Savior did so that we can learn to be like him, not always an easy task, but necessary.

Hope you will join in listening to this General Conference. If you miss any of them and want to go back and listen they will be on the Church’s website. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org Today they are central time 11am to 1pm and 3pm to 5pm, the same times tomorrow (Sunday.)

Wishing you much peace and may we ever be grounded in the Lord.

Alpaca Farm Days 2022 Last Weekend and General Conference this Weekend

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I went to my son’s Alpaca Farm Days on Saturday and after Church on Sunday to spin while people came to see the alpaca and feed them carrots and pet a few of them. My son has 22 alpaca, 4 males and 18 females. He didn’t breed last year so no babies this year, but he has bred them this year so there should be babies (alpaca babies are called Cria) next year! Here are some pictures from the event, 2 pictures of those beautiful alpaca (I wanted to get a picture of the yoga with the alpaca but it was on Sunday morning and I was at Church). He had a skirting/sorting table set up with a fleece on it and he had a tumbler that he built and used to clean the fleeces before sending them off to the fiber mill so they don’t have so much work to do but I didn’t put the picture in (sorry), and he had his drum carder set up to show people how to make batts. The last picture is my Rick Reeves spinning wheel, that I brought to spin some alpaca with. I managed to get 1 bobbin done there and I have started the 2nd bobbin, hope to finish it this week and ply it so I can finish the 2nd bobbin on my Kromski Polonaise. I get anxious when I have too many things going at the same time, so one at a time to get it worked down!

I am going to finish the hat I am knitting (very close to done) and start a sweater to work on this weekend for General Conference week end (friend’s baby is coming in two months). Because it’s on the BYU channel on cable or on the BYU channel free to add on the Roku plug in on TV, and at http://www.churchofjesuschrist.org on line, Saturday from 11am to 1pm and 3pm to 5pm and the same times on Sunday, I can sit and enjoy the wonderfully spiritual talks that bring peace to my soul and knit at the same time, can’t get any better than that! Hope you can enjoy some peace in your day and watch a little bit of this wonderful General Conference time.

Please join me in prayers for less damage, injuries and loss of life as possible during the hurricane. I know there will be some of all of that and the devastation of any kind of loss is horrible, so I’m praying for the blessing of help from others, and peace and comfort as they deal with and rebuild what damage was done and that people not affected by this large hurricane will reach out with prayers and physical help to help them. I know the help was much appreciated a couple of years ago when we had that awful derecho.

Remembering 9/11 in 2022

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I remember where I was when this happened, do you? I wonder if this tragedy still has the same horrific meaning to everyone as it did when when we sat and watched those planes slam into those buildings killing the passengers in the planes and many people in those two buildings while we sat there unable to do anything to stop it. Don’t forget, be vigilant, freedom comes at a price and it’s hard to hold onto, don’t let go.

As we remember the 21st year since this heinous attack was perpetrated on the citizens of the USA, may we take a moment to remember all those who died on this day 21 years ago and thank those who helped in the aftermath. I would like to salute those heroes on flight 93, and all those who, on that day, willingly and unselfishly sacrificed their lives to save the lives of others. I also salute those in our armed services who have given their lives and those who continue to fight, selflessly putting their own lives in jeopardy to protect us and others from those who mean to hurt us and our Country. They are all heroes to me and I will never forget.