Archive for September 18th, 2007

On your mark, get set. . . . CRAFT!

September 18th, 2007 -- Posted in Sew | 1 Comment »

I’m done buying stuff. After some dear friends recommended that I find creative activities to occupy my evenings, I took their advice to heart. And I think I have enough to keep me occupied now.

  • The Dollies’ house is ready for wiring. I have the pencil marks made and the wiring book is read. I just need to get up the courage to do it.
  • I am ready to spider tie-bleach shirts for the boys. They are so into spiders these days with our resident family of Orbs.
  • I found a steal on a free freshwater cultured pearl 18″ necklace from overstock.com. Go check it out. I’m going to cut it up and use it for the rhinestone rondelles I’ve been saving for something special. The colors are the birthstone colors of all my babies!
  • I’m going to give knitting with wire a go. This stuff at Knitting on Impulse has me hooked. I’ve started to pay with crochet thread first. I finished a rose last night. Tonight leaves and daisies. Tomorrow silver-plated and copper wire!
  • I need a Fall purse. But I’ve got two in mind — both felted from this special issue from Interweave. One is that interesting circle purse there on the cover. And the other is that Kokopelli Tote a little further down.
  • And a scarf. There’s always a need for a scarf. I want to do the circle I-cord one from Nicky Epstein’s Knitting Over the Edge in a dark teal. Yummy.

That’s enough for now.

Families Where Grace is in Place

September 18th, 2007 -- Posted in Believe, Grace, Think | 2 Comments »

“This junk is out there,” a Lutheran believer concludes about none other than our most-widely-recommended conservative Evangelical parenting gurus. She’s right. I really, really wish she were wrong. And while we have our share of whistle-blowers, they still aren’t enough to shake the monopoly of this bad advice and even worse theology. How can Christ be first in our lives if we unapologetically teach that parents can remove the weight of sin from their children? How can we call ourselves Christians if we think we hold the power to forgive sin? How very neonomian, arrogant, ignorant, and unScriptural!

If Sears or Kimmel or Clarkson or VanVonderen’s voices were just heard alongside the more typical ones! Perhaps then the more sound theology could win the day, and our children would be safer.