They're back!

The Cedar Waxwing and Robin flocks are back in our trees today. They were here on February 23 last year. I don't know if they are really exactly a month early, or if my calculations are off.

Either way, they are here making our back yard an aviary! I love it. It is pouring down rain but the birds are flitting from tree to tree eating the mysterious berries we have and sounding like they are enjoying themselves.

Happy Monday!

My first scarf!

I wanted to learn how to knit this year because my daughter just learned. So, I asked her to teach me! She learned at Christmas when Grandma was here and could give a few lessons. Our church has a new knitting group starting up this month, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity for the two of us to join a club together. We'll be donating the scarves we knit to Shepherd's Gate in Livermore, a shelter for women and children.

I've been excited to knit this first scarf and make the embellishment for it too. It has been even more fun to make it knowing that it will be a special gift to a woman who needs to feel the warmth of Christ's live in the midst of crisis.

Then, as I finished the scarf and I took the picture...I remembered, "HEY!! My word is "share"!! What better way to share than to be knitting for other people."

How cool is that!?

Presidio National Cemetery San Francisco, California

John G. Lindgren of New York died on April 21, 1940. He was a Private, First Class in the 11th Infantry. I can't find out much about John other than the fact that he may have been a firefighter in New York at some point. The 11th Infantry was in the Civil War, a unit comprised of New York City firemen. Lindgren is my maiden name. We did not find anyone with my married name.

We found his gravestone on a recent trip to the Presidio in San Francisco. You can search the burial sites by last name which tells you the grave marker number as well as the location of the stone.

I chose this picture as my first picture of myself for the new year to use in my One Little Word class. We were assigned to take a picture of ourselves as a sort of time marker. I picked this picture because it was one of the first family outings we did for the new year.

But I also picked it because of the significance of the grave. I am using this picture to help remind me that I am choosing to bury the past, especially the junky stuff.

This year I am choosing to share myself more with my God, my family and my friends. This means that I am burying my old habit of keeping things to myself. Mind you, I'm not going to become a person who spews whatever I want whenever I want to. But, I am going to choose to be more actively open to others. I'm sure I'll learn more about that as I journey through this year of sharing.

The definition of Share

Part of the Word of the Year, or One Little Word as it is called, is to define the word and follow more prompts from our teacher as we work on the word.

The definition of "Share" is

• to participate in, take, possess, or undergo in common
• to grant or be granted a share in
• to experience, or enjoy with others
• to divide or distribute in portions

How interesting it was to look in the dictionary for the definition of a word that I thought I was pretty familiar with. Of course the dictionary definition was way longer, but I picked out parts of the definition that spoke to what I wanted to learn this year. The things that talk about being in common with others stood out to me. I thought of corporate worship, of meals with family, of conversation with others.

Tomorrow I'll share the picture I'm using as my "self-portrait"...another part of our assignments.

Word of the Year

I'm taking a class over at Big Picture. It's a great scrap/craft/life lesson website. You can find them at www.bigpictureclasses.com I've taken lots of classes there and have enjoyed every one of them.

This year I'm taking a year long class taught by the talented Ali Edwards. She's a big wig in the scrappin' world. The class is called, "One Little Word". The idea is you choose a word that you'll focus on for the entire year. Sounds pretty interesting. For a word lover like me...it seemed like trying to pick your favorite child or something!

However, the word I'm going to use presented itself to me in August. It has been banging around in my head since then trying to figure out how to get me to notice it. So, this is the chance it needed.

The word I picked is, "Share". I love that it's a verb. I love that it has a bunch of different meanings. Our first assignment was to design a cover for a scrapbook that we'll fill up all year long. That's my cover at the top of this post.

Our next assignment is to begin to define what the word means. I'd already been thinking about that. I'm sure the word will come to mean more to me throughout the year though. For now, I've said that "share" means sharing who I am with my family, sharing what I know with others, as well as sharing what I have.

I spent the last hour of 2011 doing just that with my daughter and her friend and her friend's mom. While the boys watched Star Wars Episode Somethingorother...we retreated to the craft room and made cards!!

This morning before getting out of bed my darling hubby and I shared our wishes for eachother and our family in prayer.

Can't beat a start like that!