Click Click Click

Why yes, dear readers, that would be the sound of my knitting needles.

First of all, I'm not as sad or angry as I was in the past post.  I went to my local yarnshop and got help finding a free pattern for beanies and some yarn, and I knit the pain and sorrow over what happened this week away.  I was going to mail them to Connecticut, but decided to ultimately give them to the youth director at my church who will give them to the local homeless. 

Those hats did me well.  It's like all the frustration and sorrow for the year melted away.  It was healing.  Selfish as that may seem, it was healing for me.  And I am grateful for that.

All my Christmas knitting is done, with two exceptions.  One is a lace hat (made with this yarn, which I love) for my sister.  I wanted to have it done by Christmas eve, but we'll see.   The other is a lace scarf for my best friend (made with this lovely yarn in a color called Eggplant which is out); it's my first time doing lace with lace yarn.  Total challenge, but I love it.

I'm currently working on experimenting with Fibonacci sequences with knitting.  So today I cast on for a shawl (no pattern, just a whim) with four colors of Wool-Ease worsted, and am running with it.

Today is actually perfect knitting weather, too.  We're in the middle of a blizzard (yay) and no one has to be anywhere til later.  Both of my parents are sick, which sucks, but it's very quiet here.  (Aside from the coughing and sneezing.)  The tree is lit and I am as comfy as can be on the couch. :)

Life is good.  Balance has been restored to my world.

Take a moment today dear readers to remember your joys.

Blessings to all.

~Meaghan

Merry Christmas!

It's a beautiful day here in Colorado.  The sun is shining, the snow is gleaming, and our tree is on full glow. :)

The Christmas eve services last night were beautiful with candles and music abounding.  My awesome boyfriend was able to come to the last one with my family and meet some of my friends.  He then came over for dinner and some down time. 

Today has been the best.  I love that my family is all together and safe.  We're all sick with something except dad - I'm recovering from strep throat, mom and Katie from colds.  But we're all together.  And after the past few months of craziness with the car and concussions and illness and chaos, that is more than enough.

I recieved many wonderful gifts, including a promise ring and a beautiful blanket, but the most important gift is the people in my life.

So Merry Christmas, dear readers and friends, and thank you for reading this blog.  Enjoy your holiday to the fullest. :)

~Meaghan

Sick for the Holidays

Every. 

Single.

Year.

I swear.  I am sick on Christmas or the few days before Christmas every single year.  Last year I kept a headcold at bay with Halls Vitamin C drops.  The year before, I grinned and bared it.

This year, I have strep throat.

Yup yup.  Cancelled plans for the week except for the few that I can't reschedule.  Now I'm in my jammies, praying the snow will let up until all my loved ones make it home.

With any luck, the meds will kick in by Friday, and Christmas eve and Christmas day will be good.  Well, they will be good anyway.  It's just whether or not my throat will be able to keep up. 

I think it will.

Talk about a crazy holiday tradition, though.  Geez.

~Meaghan

Christmas Time is Here...

Christmas is next week.

Holy cow, Christmas is next week.

Yes, I am excited.  I'm excited to spend time with my family, to go to some beautiful church services (even if I'm still not 100% sure of what I believe), to sit at home and watch the tree lights and see my boyfriend.  I'm excited to be with the ones I love.

But my heart is aching for those who have lost their loved ones and are spending time without them.  A woman at our church lost her husband back in August.  She hasn't skipped a beat since; she knew it was his time and has continued being a spunky grandmother figure without blinking.  I know it must be hard on her, though.  I know it must.

Then there was another member of our church who died of cancer early this month.  He was in his thirties with a wife and children, the oldest who is in fifth grade.  It is going to be rough on his family; they knew it was coming, but it's still hard.

And there's the teacher who worked at Sylvan when I did who lost her husband last year, two days before Christmas.  All year she's been blogging here about her struggles throughout the past year.  This week is going to be so hard for her.  It breaks my heart all over again.  I cried last year when I found out.  I wonder if I will cry again on Christmas eve.

There's my friend from public speaking, who has been struggling with food stamps and keeping her head above the water.  It's going to be a scarce holiday for her, her husband, and their kiddos.  My family got a bag full of stuff for them - toys for the kids, a cook book, lotion for her, and a gift card to the grocery store.  My boyfriend and I are taking it to them this week.  It's hard, though.

My boyfriend and his family are having their own struggles.  I'm not at liberty to tell what, but it's been rough for them.  He's been stressed out.  And now that he's gotten into his school of choice (which I am so proud of him for), he's nervous about leaving this city and going to another.  I know I'm going to miss him, but the truth is - as I told him - I'm a phone call away.  And a drive won't kill me.

I would be lying if I said we didn't have our struggles either.  There was the whole fiasco with the car and the battle with the credit card people.  My dad works two jobs and is hardly home at times.  We live in a small apartment and only have one running vehicle.

But we don't have it bad.  I look at all these other stories and I realize how good my family has it.  We don't always get along, but at least we're all somewhat healthy.  We are all alive.  We have each other.  We could lose everything and be living on the street or in my grandmother's back yard, but we would still have each other.

I am the most blessed woman in the world.  I have a family who supports me.  I have a sister who is my best friend.  I have the most wonderful boyfriend who cares about me for me and who loves me.  I have friends who are there when I need them and who understand when I get lazy or busy (you know who you are).

There is food on the table and a roof over our heads and heat and blankets and beds.

Do I really need anything else?

No.  I don't.

I think that's what it's all about.

This season, please pray for the people mentioned above.  Pray for those you know who are hurting.  And count your blessings.  They are the only things that matter.

~Meaghan

It's Over

Winter Break can officially begin.

On the one hand, I am seriously relieved.  I didn't get straight A's this semester; if I'm lucky, I'll scrape two A's and two B's.  Which is still good.  I'm relieved the stress is gone.  I now have time to recoup and finish knitting gifts for everyone.  (Fingers crossed that I actually get them done.)

But on the other hand, I'm still wondering where August went.  I feel like I blinked and it was gone.  Mainly, I'm concerned that this year is almost over and I haven't accomplished everything that I wanted to.  Sure, I made it through the semester.  But did I do the things that matter?  Did I look enough at the spring, summer, and fall trees?  Did I make enough wishes on stars to restore the universe of hope or say I love you enough times to the people I care about?

Mainly, have I made my time count so far?

I think for the most part, the answer is yes.  But seriously.  I need to start paying more attention to life.  The fact that this semester has flown is proof that life is too short.

I'm not ready for the Christmas holidays.  I'm not at all in the holiday mindset.  I think I'm sitting at the mysticism part of Christianity; it's too long to get into here.  I love Christmas.  But I just can't feel it yet.  Maybe I need to get through the weekend first.

And now I need to go to bed before I start drooling on the keyboard.

Goodnight, dear readers.  I hope you enjoy your night.

~Meaghan

Where to Begin?

Hey again, my dear readers.  So, it's after the holidays and I have so many things I want to talk about.  I can honestly say I have no clue where to begin. 

At the beginning, I suppose.  That might be a good place.

As you remember from my previous entry, a wonderful woman lost her husband the day before Christmas eve.  I never knew him, but I worked with his now widow - I know he must have been a wonderful man, because she was so sweet and wonderful to me.  I can not imagine what their family must be going through; my heart still aches for them, three days later.  Please, keep them in your prayers.

Christmas eve came.  The puppet show at church was fantastic and went off without a hitch.  My sister was the solo puppet for a cover of Springsteen's "Born in the USA" called "Born in Bethlehem".  She was amazing.  I got to be a sheep dressed as a 1950's secretary for another cover.  Not as thrilled with that song as I was with Kate's solo.

And then came the big one.

We did this thing that I can barely pronounce, let alone spell, which was done entirely in black light.  The song was an African cover of  "Oh, Holy Night".  Our hands had white gloves on them to glow in the black light, there were signs with African masks painted on them in black light paint, and black light puppets.  What we did was form a line on either side of the stage and pass these pieces that were painted in black light paint in rhythm to the song, creating a really cool look.  The person at the end of each line took the pieces and placed them on a board in a set pattern.

When the song was done, a plug in the middle of the board was taken out and all that the audience could see were our hands in prayer and a glowing cross. 

I got lucky enough to go home after helping with two services and sitting through a third - Kate wasn't so lucky.  She had to play handbells at a fourth service.

When I got home, I decided to check my Facebook account before unwinding. (Yeah, I have a Facebook.  If you feel inclined, you can look me up...)  That was when I found out that the father of one of the guys who helps with the youth group had died.  I was heartbroken, because the man who helps with youth group has been such a great support to my sister and myself, and to lose someone over the holidays - on Christmas eve - is brutal.

It was the second death in two days that I had learned about via Facebook.

I broke down.  The deaths, the lack of sleep preppin for the holidays, the fact that I had just gotten over a cold - all of it had taken every dime of emotional energy out of me.  I ended up in the kitchen with my mom, where she gave me a talk about death.

 I'm twenty and I can honestly say I do not know what I would do without my mom.  Yeah, we have our bouts and we have our shouting matches from time to time, and sometimes I swear we're the most dysfunctional family on the block.  But the truth is, she's one of the only people I trust with my emotions like that.  And she almost always makes me feel better about things.

I felt better after our talk.  My sister and dad made it home and we had pot roast for dinner.

Christmas came and it was beautiful.  No snow, but you can't have everything.  My mom liked the socks I made, and my dad seemed to like the tie.  Kate loved the frog and bag I made.  I got some cool stuff too - I got a nice vanilla sugar scrub that my sister made and that smells like sugar cookies, some great handwarmers that my mom made and that I'm wearing as I type this, a copy of the Breakfast Club on VHS from my dad (it's a memory thing, which did not go unnoticed by me), a stylish knitting bag and needle case, and a book of sock patterns among many others.

It was a wonderful Christmas.  I got to relax, knit all day (I completed a penguin that I had started the day before, minus the sewing), and spend time with my family.  Then I got to go to bed in my new pj's (it's a tradition. =D )

Which leads us to today. 

More lounging about and knitting (I'm working on mastering socks), and I did laundry.  I think that about sums it up.  Oh, and I blogged.

You know, it's funny.  I don't always write on here, but I always write something every day.  One of these days, I'm going to be published.  I just know it. =)

And now I must bid you farewell.  Socks don't finish themselves.  Also, please keep praying, both for the two mentioned in this blog, and for the many who lost loved ones.  Thanks.

~Meaghan

Well.

It's been a while.  Sorry bout that, guys.  Life has this funny way of catching up when we least expect it.

A quick summary and then we'll move on:

My mom hurt her knee last week.  It appears that physical therapy is going to help, so she won't need surgery; that being said, she's been off it all week.  Which means that I'm kind of in charge.  I've been making two to three meals a day, doing the running, and just helping out as well as I can around here.

It's a lot of work.  I have a new-found respect for what my mom does.

Then my sister hurt her toe.  So, it's been an interesting few weeks.

Anyway.

Yesterday I knitted my first sock ever.  I'm kind of excited about it.  Sock patterns used to freak me out.  I would look at them and get instantly intimidated.  Turning of the heel?  Decreasing the toe?  It's like terror on a page!  The truth is, though, it really isn't that hard.  It's actually kind of fun.

My sister and I affectionately call my sock "Frankensock" because the combination of yarn I used (it's a varigated full of oddness) and the slightly off diminsions of the sock (for a first time, it could've been a lot worse) make it look totally wonky.  I'm in the process of making a mate for Frankensock, because socks are always in pairs.

I call her the "Bride of Frankensock".  Yeah, you can groan.  It's ok.

But I got distracted from making the Bride today because of something even more important:  I'm helping design a Christmas present.

Basically (and I can't go into too much detail here because my dad reads this from time to time), my sister needed something to make for our dad.  We got to brain storming and I had the perfect idea; she liked it.  So now I'm taking a simple concept and creating a knitting pattern for her to follow to make it more personal.

That's as much detail as you get until after the holidays.  I'm pretty excited, though, cause I've wanted to design a chart pattern.  It's another step in becoming a great knitter.  It is a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I'm enjoying it.

I can't believe Christmas is only 11 days away.  It blows my mind.  This year has gone by incredibly fast.  I hope I get everything done.  I'm pretty sure I will. =)

Until next time, readers.

~Meaghan

Why Hate the Fruit Cake?

Seriously. Everyone seems to be so against the holiday tradition known as fruit cake, and it has honestly never made much sense to me. Yes, it is a rather heavy cake. And yes, it is full of candied fruits and nuts including but certainly not limited to the unidentified green...things. And yes, it does sometimes provide an interesting aftertaste that may or may not be to your liking.

But those things aside, it's really not as bad as it's made out to be. In fact, I find fruit cake to be rather good and don't like the idea of not having it for Christmas. Here are some reasons why I like fruit cake:

1. Flavor Meets Texture

I like the way fruit cake tastes. But even more than that, I like the texture of it. Yes, it is very heavy - hence why you are supposed to only eat small pieces at a time. Heaviness aside, however, the cake has a really interesting texture. You can feel the nuts and candied fruit, but if you really dig far enough, you can tell that the cake batter itself has the texture much like a very firm bread pudding. That's not a very good way to describe it, but it's the only one I can think of right now. Anyway, it's good.

2. Tradition

My dad and I have this tradition where we always get a fruit cake. My mom and little sister don't like fruit cake, so it's just me and dad eating it. It's kinda like when I was younger and dad and I would watch TV and binge on my Halloween candy after the others had gone to bed. It was our way of connecting. Same with the fruit cake: we both eat slices together and discuss the cake and whatever else may be going on at the time. It's nice and routine and ours.

3. The Green Things

I am probably the only person I know who gets a kick out of eating the green cherries on the fruit cake. At least, I think they're cherries. I don't know why I get so amused eating them, but it's a big deal to me for some strange reason. I guess it's how my brain is programed...

So there you have it, my reasons for liking fruit cake. I know that a lot of people still hate it even after reading this, but if you have read this, please, try to give fruit cake a chance. It has a lot of good points and it's a holiday thing.

But if you still don't like it, I understand.

Until the next time, Cyberland.

~Birdgirl90

My "N" Key is going out...

So it's Christmas day and I have discovered something new - the "n" key on my laptop keyboard seems to be on the brink of going out. It's rather annoying because I use the "n" key quiet frequently and now I have to hit it just right or else it won't go. Blah.

I survived my day of crazyness yesterday. I woke up yesterday morning after having a bad night's sleep (I think I dreamed about spiders because I was blogging about them before bed, but I don't really remember...) and proceded to have a nervous breakdown on the way to work. Which kinda sucks, because I'm one of those people who hate crying in front of other people, especially if they are related to me or know me (like my parents, who were in the front of the car); luckily my face was not overly red at work and I survived my morning.

But then I got attacked by this big, heavy box at work. Basically I had to move this huge stack of boxes from one area to another, which isn't that big of a deal. Except for when the boxes are stacked above your head and you assume they are going to be light. I ended up dropping the box (it was really heavy and I had no grip on it whatsoever) on my head slightly and then, like in slow motion, it scratched my arms as I tried to catch it. I heard it meet the ground and realized that there was glass inside of the box. I'm pretty sure I broke whatever was in the box, but the lady in the room I was in said not to worry about it because they would just blame the UPS guy.

Sorry UPS guy. I am working on learning to be more careful.

The rest of yesterday seems to blur. I know there were three church services I attended, one that I got to watch (the puppets did a great job as did the youth bells and choir) and two that I performed in (Epic Fail the first time on the bells, much better the second service). I came home and ate onion rings from Burger King and went to bed. Apparently, onion rings from Burger King affect sleep patterns cause I had the weirdest dream last night...

Today has been a pretty good day. I got the cutest pink bunny slippers! I'm wearing them with my argile socks right now and think they are the spiffiest things since silver chains. And I got fingerless gloves, which means I can play my violin in the cold without my fingers freezing off. I've also been stuffing my face with food that is not the healthiest in any sense. I'll start my diet after the new year...

In fact, I think the only thing that is not going well today is that we still don't know why my dad's car died on the highway last week. And my "n" key is driving me batty.

I hope all you people in cyberspace have enjoyed this week of lots of updates and that you are enjoying whatever holiday you celebrate. I wanna say that I'm still going to be updating like there is no tomorrow, but I have no guarentees.

Until then, happy holidays.