Thank you Marianne! It was so lovely to get your comment. I have not blogged for over a month, and have been missing contact with the outside world. I know what you mean about being isolated - I was terrified that that would happen here. I had a similar experience when we first moved to England. What brought you away from Norway? Do you intend to stay in the States permanently? You must miss you family big time. My family is in Australia and South Africa, so the internet saves our sanity. Do you write a blog? Send me the address, and I would love to check it out if you do. Take care!
How's you house coming along? I think I feel the guest room calling...
Thank you Leslie! It has been a wonderfully relaxing time.
Thanks for visiting! Beverly, the yarn in the second picture is called Painter's Palette Premium Merino (KPPPM) by Koigu.It is a 100% Merino 4ply yarn. Have fun!
Hi ladies! Thanks so much for visiting! Great to have your encouragement. A little elbow grease and a good eye...
When I needed to lose weight, I also prayed. In fact I had a session with some friends where I prayed through all kinds of issues, both generational and current that I needed to deal with. After that, I still had to discipline myself with my eating and it was a long haul, but I did find that the desire to comfort eat had gone and I was no longer fighting myself. I think prayer is crucial in the path to weight loss. I was talking above, however, about people who go up for "healing prayer" for their weight loss but have no real intention of changing their eating habits or way of life. They expect to lose weight while still eating pounds of beef and drinking litres of Coke. I guess in every situation it is about the co-labouring God calls us to. He wants us to work together with him, which means a healthy balance of expecting him to give us supernatural assistance as we step out in obedience to his commands (most often the narrow, and not easy way!) Its when we expect him to do everything without engaging our own will and self-control that it becomes skewed. I do believe though, that miracles happen and sometimes (to the chagrine of many) God turns up and does stuff no-one has worked for. I guess its called love.
I like what you say about God not being "afraid to let his people suffer". I read somewhere once (in a cheesy and surprisingly helpful 1960s self-help book) that human beings are often more afraid of the idea of suffering than the suffering itself. When it actually happens they find themselves much stronger and more capable of bringing something positive out of it than they had realised. We need to work on getting our perspective right don't we! If God isn't afraid of suffering perhaps we need to learn from that.
Oh this one just came to me while I was eating my cupcake for lunch - "I don't need to go on diet, God is going to heal me instantly of obesity" (This is true, I have actually heard it said).
I have the opposite problem. In a crisis, I tend to throw out a quick prayer and then get down to business being Mrs Fix-It. This tends to get me in situations that are less than positive. Its interesting how Christians react to this situation. These are some of the things well-meaning brothers and sisters (in Christ) have said to me: "You were impatient - God only gives us enough grace for today"; "If you were in God's will, there would be favour on all you do"; "Abraham waited patiently for 100 years, and see the mess he got into when he tried to fix it himself". It seems there is an area of discomfort around admitting that God may allow our lives to be not quite perfect. Whenever our lives are not working out too well, it must be someone's fault, but God certainly cannot have anything to do with it!!
Appropriate for the back seat of the car. No more passing blame now...
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ckertonjohnson 
Thingamajig