Never enough time in the day ...

Well, I'll post a little bit now ... to say all that I want to say, I think I would need several hours to type and organize photos and all that jazz, but I'll start now and try to finish up later!

The biggest news going on over here is the opening of my Etsy Store: Emmagail Creations. I am so excited to start my store, but if you do pop over there, you might notice a small inventory. I am feeling torn about making tons of things to put in it or keeping it low for now and see if I even sell anything! Probably it will stay low because I don't have enough hours in the day to do all I want to do! So far I have had one order - but hey, I'm happy I just got that first one! I also donated an item from the shop to a contest and that was fun to do!

This is a huge step. I've been telling my dh for over three years now that I wanted to do something like this. The timing has never felt right. Not that the timing is any better now, but yet it felt right. And something inside of me and a lot of somethings outside of me said DO IT NOW! So I did. Just like that. Dh came home from work one day and when he asked me how my day was I said something like "It was good. I opened my own store today. Let's hope I sell something." My dh, being the guy he is, pretty much replied "Great! Good luck with it." Ah, just one of the many reasons I love him. I promise if the tables had been turned I would have asked a million questions and would have been slow to warm up to the idea!

Aside from working on that, I am trying to do some crafting all for myself and the kids! Some knitting going on, the start of sewing a dress, oldest has requested a purse made from an old skirt she loves but can't really wear anymore, and I have some ideas to make some end of year teacher gifts. I'd like to say I will have pictures to share this weekend, but really, I thought I'd be sharing pictures last weekend, and you can see how well that idea turned out!

Anyway, hope all is well with everyone else =)

Some reading ...

I know this originally began as a knitting blog, and there is hardly any knitting content in it anymore. But, that's the road life has taken me down. I do still knit. I will show some pictures soon of some in-progress items and some (hopefully) finished. And I am planning a trip to buy some more yarn to make more things.
But for the moment, we'll talk reading since I have recently finished 3 books!
12 Sharp by Janet Evanovich - if you do not like this series, I do not understand why not! LOL! I will still be your friend, but truly I enjoy this series a lot. I haven't read one in a while and I think that made this book even more fun to read! Stephanie just has a habit of getting caught in some sticky situations but she always has very funny, entertaining people with her, well those kinds or really hot men. Either way, these books are enjoyable for me to read.

Embroidered Truths by Monica Ferris - yes, I have been reading a lot of Ferris books lately. They are all mysteries, which I love, and incorporate needlework, which of love, so of course I will try to read them all! LOL! Again, a quick, light read that was very entertaining

Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot - this was for the TBR Challenge I'm participating in. Great read. Another mystery. Very entertaining, quick, easy, fun read that I did enjoy a lot! I will be picking up the next book in this series (and I think there are 2 others out there as well).

Aside from these books that I managed to squeeze in, I am still going on my Read the Bible in 90 Days challenge. I am still a bit ahead, which I am glad for! I am at this point halfway through the Bible and on it's been 42 days. I am halfway through Proverbs and the farthest I have made it before in trying to read the entire Bible is part of Psalms. So I am now farther than I have been before! It is all very interesting reading frankly - the OT is full of lots of wars, punishment, forgiveness, and lots of family trees. I am sure if I was reading out loud it would be great entertainment to hear how I chop up the pronunciation of names. But I am going with it and I am actually enjoying it.

Anyway, I spend most of my reading time in the Bible but take along the light-hearted books when I am out and about to read. It is working very well. But I do have a stack of books waiting to be devoured soon!

Faith like a child ...

I don't normally share personal stories over here, usually I just talk arts and crafts. But I feel like this is a good story to share here. All of this took place on Friday while I was driving to meet up with a relative so the kids could play and her and I could hang out ...

Sometimes my children completely blow me away. Today was one of those days.
We were in the car at 11:00 today when in my area a moment of silence was observed for what happened on Monday.
The radio announcers took the moment of silence and then they said a lovely prayer about healing over what had happened, etc and it was nice.
My four year old asked me if she too could say a prayer.
Now, I had explained to my children that something bad had happened on Tuesday (because we also took a moment of silence then at 1pm our time zone). I told them a lot of people were hurt and sadly some of them even died and we needed to remember them and pray for them. We don't watch much news truly, but it has come up in conversation with others and so they listen even when we don't expect them too because my 4 year old knew more than I thought she did and expressed it in a prayer that left me speechless ...
"Dear God,
Please be with all the people who are sad and hurt and love them extra. And God, please be close to the shooter right now because I think he needs You most of all.
Amen."

I kid you not, that is what she said. I got goose bumps. Really. I did. Because it hit me she was right. He did probably need love and kindness right now most of all because I can only think that someone hurting soooooo badly could even think of committing the act he did, let alone acting it out. And two, until that moment I hadn't given that shooter a second thought other than to think I hope he was burning in you know where for what he did. And yet, here is my 4 year old, my 4 year old, who not only remembered to pray for the victims of what happened, but she remembered to pray for the man who did it.
People, I was blown away. Just blown away.
And what happened today I believe is a perfect example of how to have faith like a child. Because in her heart was no hatred. But yet concern and compassion for everyone. Even people I have not thought to give concern and compassion for. And that, my dear friends, is a lesson my 4 year old taught me. A child. An innocent child who is not jaded by so many other things and can say a prayer like that without giving it a second thought. And at the same time giving me goosebumps and making me say a quick prayer in my head, mimicking her words. And here the whole time I thought it was my job to teach them to pray. But really, they are teaching me. In very powerful ways.

So much I want to say ...

Yet, not enough time to pull it all together.
I really do have a lot to post about.
Hopefully this weekend there will be some good posting, some good pictures to share and all that jazz. This has just been an incredibly getting me all out of sorts kind of week and it's throwing off my ability to share here.
Like I said, hopefully this weekend things will calm down enough and I can get back into the swing of things.
OF course, you might have noticed a new little section with a new link in my sidebar - that will be talked about much more soon!

A day of silence ...

I'm making today a day of no posting in memory of those slain at Virginia Tech.