A lovely spring Sunday

The weather today was just beautiful - clear with a high in the upper 50s. It wasn't warm enough to open the windows for more than 30 minutes, but the fresh air was nice for a little while. It is supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow (and we had fresh snow just last week!).

At church this morning, the sermon was called "Does God Really Care?" The pastors are doing a series on "The Tough Questions". The pastor talked about the fact that God really does love us and care about us. God loves us enough that he allows us to suffer because suffering produces character (Rom 5:3-53 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.). Suffering also teaches us obedience (Psalm 119:67). When all is said and done, our suffering can change our lives for the better. James tells us to consider it joy when we face trials of many kinds. Quite a challenge! I don't think that the pastor said anything that I hadn't previously heard, but he presented some good lessons from suffering.

I posted a conservative retelling of the ant and the grasshopper a couple of days ago. I got that from a forum that I frequently visit. In the ensuing "discussion" on that forum, I found that some people found racial overtones in that story. Obviously, I did not - otherwise I wouldn't have posted it. So, if you found it offensive for racial reasons, please read it again with the understanding that it is intended only to describe the differences between lazy and industrious people and our society's response to those people. Enough said.

I've been knitting socks lately. I did a fun pair with a basket-weave pattern for L. I finished one sock with a mock-smocked pattern for myself. Unfortunately, I am now caught up with making a pair of socks from the toe up. So far, I'm not having much luck. I am supposed to do a figure of 8 cast on. The cast on itself isn't too hard, but I must be twisting stitches or something because the whole thing starts to get all mixed up by the time that I get to the third row. EEK!

I had some kids from the 4H group over to knit today. I discovered that teaching knitting is harder than I expected. I tried to teach a cable cast-on, but no one got the hang of it. Eventually, I decided to teach a one-needle cast on which worked much better. Another mom did some knitting as a kid and she used a different kind of one needle cast on (kind of like a bunch of half-hitch knots side by side). The problem was that she then ended up with lots of extra yarn between stitches on the first row. By the end of the afternoon, everyone had cast on (even though I redid a couple of them) and was knitting. The other two moms also had a handle on how to do the knit stitch, so they can help the kids. We'll get together again in a few weeks and see where everyone is.

Here's a joke I found on a clean joke website that I thought was cute:

Two Trouble Makers: A couple had two little mischievous boys, ages 8 and 10. They were always getting into trouble, and their parents knew that if any mischief occurred in their town, their sons would get the blame. The boys' mother heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The clergyman agreed and asked to see them individually.So, the mother sent her 8-year-old first, in the morning, with the older boy to see the clergyman in the afternoon. The clergyman, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is God?"They boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there with his mouth hanging open.The clergyman repeated the question. "Where is God?"Again, the boy made no attempt to answer.So, the clergyman raised his voice some more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, "Where is God!?"The boy screamed and bolted from the room. He ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him.When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, "What happened?" The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied: "We are in real BIG trouble this time! God is missing, and they think we did it!"