Knitting Knee-Highs by Barb Brown

What an inspirational book! Reading this book was so enjoyable—great pictures, great stories, great text, great instructions!! This book by Barb Brown contains patterns for twenty awesome patterned knee socks. The patterns run the range from conservative to frilly to a little funky (in a good way!) I can totally see myself wearing these socks, or any one of these would make a valuable gift for anyone.

Besides the individual instructions for each style of socks, the book also contains information such as the formula for making socks knee-high, tips and tricks for custom fitting, converting knee-highs to other sizes, and general knitting information. She also gives tips on gauge and making a swatch to be sure your project turns out right. She also addressed one of my huge concerns, which is spending so much time on making socks and then being afraid to wear them for fear of wearing them out—she gives ideas for either repairing them or adjusting their function.

I have only ever knitted plain socks, I consider myself to be a very beginner knitter, yet I plan on trying one of these patterns soon. They are just too gorgeous to not try!

I highly recommend this book, with an explanation that I have not tried any of the patterns in this book, so I cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review.

Signs of spring

Sure sign of spring. . .winter coats and snowpants washed and hanging on the line! Hopefully not needed for several months! :)

ESV Seek and Find Bible

I received a free copy of the "Seek and Find" Bible from Crossway books to review. I was not required to write a positive review.

My first thought on seeing this Bible (marketed to 5-9 yr olds) was that it is HUGE! It's a big, hardcover Bible with a dust jacket. The artwork on the front is interesting, showing illustrations of several Bible stories. My thought about the dust jacket is that it is superfluous, I mean what child will be able to keep the dust jacket nice if they actually use the Bible?

I like that this was a complete Bible, not just a collection of Bible stories. A full Bible is very valuable even for young children, following along in church, finding and reading different passages throughout.

I have mixed feelings on an overall summary of this publication. So here are my thoughts, intermixed. I really liked the illustrations, the time-lines, the character sketches, the explanations of historical things. They were a great addition to the text. I did not like the separate Bible "stories" interspersed throughout the Bible text. They make it hard to find Bible passages easily and quickly and add to the overall bulk of the book. I don't have issue with what was written in these stories, but I think they would have been better printed as a companion book, rather than in the Bible itself. Another caution about this set-up is a child's possible confusion over which is the inspired Scripture and which is just the added story part. The seek and find/related Bible readings etc. were great, don't get me wrong, but I really would rather see them separated from the actual Bible. Other sections such as maps and dictionary--nice and necessary.

All in all, this is a nice Bible format. I would have organized it differently, but it is eyecatching and contains valuable extra information that will enhance a child's Bible reading experiences. My children will use this as a resource and as an additional version of the Bible, but I can't see it being their favorite one to take to Sunday School.

Thanks to Crossway books for letting me review this new publication! Please feel free to see www.crossway.org/blog

Small attempts

I'm looking for some ideas--maybe you can give me some! Here's what I'm thinking about right now. Occasionally I see homeless (?) or at least begging men sitting at the highway exits (you know, with a sign saying something like "Anything helps" or some such) and I would like to be able to help. I don't have money to give, but I'd like to be more prepared.

Every Sunday we stop for doughnuts after church and I give one to the homeless (?) guy who sits at our exit--sometimes with a tract, other times just the doughnut. He looks for us now :) and we have a short superficial few seconds chat. It's just a doughnut, but it's what I can do.

Today I saw another fellow, at another exit, and I wished I had something small to share with him. It started me thinking, what could I keep in my car to give to guys like this? It couldn't be something melty, like chocolate, and nothing that would spoil. Any ideas? Please feel free to share your ideas with me in the comments section!

Craving Grace by Lisa Velthouse

The subtitle of this book (Craving Grace by Lisa Velthouse) is “a story of faith, failure, and my search for sweetness.” This is a very nice concise summary of the book. It is the story of the author’s search for an understanding/experiencing of God’s grace. She wrestles with ideas of earning God’s grace, manipulating Him to gain grace, and other nuances of attaining grace. The understood point throughout all of this is that God’s grace is completely un-earnable, totally a GIFT from Him.

I enjoyed this book much more than I imagined I would. It was deep, but manageable. The thoughts about grace inspired a lot of thought and searching about my own life in relation to God’s grace. We so often feel that we can manipulate God into “gifting” or doing good things for us, but that’s really not what grace is about! I really identified with Lisa’s root struggles and amazement at God’s true nature and grace which is so undeserved; a true gift—for me!

I also liked the theme of fasting. It was told from such a different angle, with the fasting from sweets; it challenged my thinking about why fasting is important, and warned me away from thinking of fasting as a way to “get” God to do something for you.

The style of the book was a little odd, I didn’t really get the way the chapter titles skipped back and forth from three years ago to current times. I found I was less confused if I just didn’t read the chapter titles! But it didn’t detract from the book.

My final summation of the book is to say it is certainly a valuable read. It’s challenging and should be read and thought over—it’ll grow your ideas of God—and yourself. I also think it would be a wonderful book for a group Bible study or a Christian discussion group—it brings up so many great ideas for discussion/thought. Read it! It’s time well spent, and you will find yourself thinking about the topics long after reading the book.

Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes; I was not required to write a positive review.

Non-patched pants

These pants had been patched and the patch kept pulling apart, so we tried something different! Holey pants plus a sweater equals a little girl's new favorite pants!! :)

When God Created My Toes by Dandi Daley Mackall

When God Created My Toes is a sweet book for little children. It’s written in a rhyming poem/song style the sort of which a child would make up and sing along. It talks of God creating different body parts, toes, knees, hips, head, etc., using a fun sing-song story line. The words together with the illustrations are silly and will elicit a giggle here and there. They give a picture of a little girl with a little mischievous spirit, doing things that normal children will do.

I like that this book has a nice-sized hardcover binding, and a combination of line-drawings and colored illustrations. The part I didn’t like was the front cover illustration, which I thought looks a little creepy for some reason. To me it doesn’t reflect the cute illustrations that fill the book; as a matter of fact, if I were to see this book on a bookstore shelf, I probably would not even pick it up, based on the cover illustration. I hate to say it, but there it is. I would have judged this book by its cover and missed out on the content.
I will recommend this book—it’s a nice book, great for a 3-5 year old, I’d say. You just have to overlook the cover art!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. I was not required to write a positive review.