In memory of my Grandma Cleone

Grandma and her grandchildren quite some years ago. I am the one leaning on the chair in the back.

 This morning I am in Iowa attending the funeral of my Grandma Cleone who is my Dad's Mom. (Pre-posting can come in handy!)

  My Grandma was in the nursing home for a couple of years now and was very much ready to go home to heaven. She had a very close relationship with our God and I am looking forward to seeing her again someday. Grandma was truly ready to go and so I was very happy for her that she was able to make that journey but I wasn't quite ready for how much it would hit home to me that I would really really miss her. Over the last couple of years it has been kind of like we have slowly saying goodbye as it become harder to have good conversations and phone conversations were quite challenging and so I thought this parting might not be that hard but it still was. She has been a very important part of my life and she will be very missed!

  I had fun looking through my photo albums and finding a few pictures to share on here. I don't have much time to write memories now but I might later as my Grandma was a pretty fun and inspiring lady!

 The picture above is one of Grandma, Dad, Mara and I. We were blessed to live near Grandma when we were first married and Mara was born. She did things like freeze a bunch of meals for me to use and just encouraged and helped out however she could.

 Here is Grandma and her oldest Great-grandchildren outside of Pizza Ranch a place she liked to take us. My Grandma was great with Kids and I can still hear the sound of her reading stories aloud in my head. She had a very good story reading voice!

 Ken, Mara, Jonathan and I with Grandma on her 80th birthday.

  This is my Grandma,  a long time before I was born! She was a school teacher for many years and really enjoyed doing that. She was a great encouragement to my parents when they decided to homeschool and then again to we grandchildren when we decided to homeschool.

 Grandma in her room at the nursing home.

Grandma and some of her great-grandchildren.

  I feel very blessed to have a Grandma like my Grandma! I will look forward to seeing her again someday!

Here are some other posts about my Grandma:
A visit at her home and memories of time with Grandma
Visiting Grandma in the nursing home
Learning about Iowa and one of my favorite things there- Grandma.

Home again, Home again...

This past week we took a quick trip to Iowa to visit my Grandma and other friends. Ken had some continuing ed classes in the Cities to go to so we drove down that far with him and then went on from there. My sister Keren went with us.

On Wednesday we went to Ottumwa, stayed with my friend Stacy (one of the roommates I had in college) we also got to attend Wednesday evening services at Christ's church in Ottumwa and see some other friends.
On Thursday morning we were able to go out for Breakfast with Angie (another friend from College) and her husband and sister.

After that we went to visit Edd the Florist were I worked while living in Ottumwa. I was quite happy to find Jane (the head florist who taught me how to design) still working there. It was fun to visit with her and Kathryn. They were having a great sale on a dozen roses (Just $7.56 which is cheaper than I can get them wholesale!) so we bought a dozen pink ones for Grandma.

We then headed up to Grandma's. For me MN is definitely home but the south eastern area of Iowa comes next with what feels like home. When I was a kid we had fun visiting Grandma there and then I went to camp in that area as a teenager and then I went to a small Bible college there, Ken and I got married (in MN but while we were living in IA) while we were there, Mara was born there and I have lots of fond memories of my time there! When driving out from Ottumwa to Grandma's home (which is by Sigourney) I decided to take some back roads which is another of my fond memories of Iowa. When my brother Peter and I were in college at the same time we did a lot of back road exploring (usually with Josh, Stacy and others) and then Ken and I did a lot of door to door calling out in the rural areas and went down many back roads.
It was very good to see Grandma. I hadn't seen her in about 2 years. Grandma is 85 and is struggling quite a lot health wise. Because of that she has a hard time keeping up with things. Her house is not very clean and we opened windows quickly to air it out but we enjoyed helping to get things in order while we were there. Grandma is to the point that she doesn't feel comfortable going places and hadn't even been outside since December (other than opening her door to reach out and get the mail) so we thought it would be nice to try to get her outside to enjoy the fresh air. We decided to have picnics on the front lawn and she thought that sounded like fun. We did that 3 times while we were there. In the picture above we are eating and also my uncle John and aunt Donna are there visiting too. They live about 1/2 mile from Grandma and help her out a lot!
One of the things we enjoyed while we were there was getting to watch a "circus".
On Saturday we left at 6:30 am to come home. Here are Mara and Jonathan at the end of the trip they didn't sleep at all until around the last 45 minutes of our trip and at that point they were out! (We had stopped a while in the cities so we didn't get home until 10:30 pm.) I had trouble waking them up to get them inside to there beds.

I thought I would include a short clip of Grandma reading to the boys. I just love hearing her read aloud. It reminds me of when I was little. I thought I would include some of my other fun memories of Grandma. It was interesting being down there with my 16 year old sister because as Grandma and I would talk about things that she used to do with our family Keren didn't remember hardly any of it. It made me feel a little sad that she didn't get to experience those times with Grandma but I guess that is the way life goes, times and people change. Anyway for some of my favorite memories:

• Having Grandma drive up to visit us at least every Spring and Fall. We would wait all day for her little car to pull in the drive. In the fall she would have a big box of ripe tomatoes to eat!
• Sitting on the chair next to her and letting her rub her fingers very gently on our hand and arm, enjoying the slight tickle sensation that it produced.
• Learning how to crochet from her, but for my having to sit opposite her (on lawn chairs outside as I recall) because she was right handed and I was left handed.
• Hearing about her shooting a skunk with her pistol. Also knowing that she cut her own wood with her own chainsaw (my Grandpa died before I was born and so Grandma has been a widow for many years, but she was very independent and not the sort of lady that anybody would try to mess with).
• Receiving birthday boxes on each birthday, complete with a gift, a box cake mix (the only time we had them in our house, so we kids thought it was a treat) and a box of whoppers.
• Grandma loved to learn how to do new things, she enjoyed sewing and was always trying out some new project whether it was making sweat suits (we all got some that she made for us), swimsuits, appliqued sweatshirts, etc. As I got older she also enjoyed getting stuff for us to use to make new projects and she helped us do them.
• Getting to go stay with Grandma for a week all by myself when I was around 12.
• Grandma enjoyed working with ceramics and when she came to visit us she would often bring some along for us to paint. We had a lot of fun working on those together.
• When I was first in college she would fix a meal for us every Sunday after church. Peter and I would go there to eat with some of our other college friends.
• Grandma enjoyed Gardening, canning and raising fruit trees and such. I have learned a lot from her in those areas too.
• Hearing Grandma's strong alto in church and hearing her request "I'm feeling fine" every Sunday for all of us to sing. I also enjoyed listening to her play the piano as she played pretty heavily with chording in the bass notes.

Grandma can't do much of that anymore but it was fun to visit with her and hear about how she is trying to teach her cleaning lady more about the Bible (Bible study has always been something that Grandma has loved) even though it means that not as much cleaning gets done.

Do you have favorite memories about your Grandparents? It would be fun to hear them.

My Homesteading Heritage

My Grandpa and Grandma in 1948

  My Grandma grew up during the depression. Though I wish now that I would have thought to ask her more about her childhood I did learn some things about it from her.

  I do remember that her memories of the depression were ones of hardship. If I remember right their family lived as share croppers (they could live on a farm in exchange for a portion of the crop) in those days- living in Iowa. They had very little. It was interesting to hear some of her memories as a little kid during those times and then see how it probably influenced the rest of her life.

  She believed in being prepared. She had bottles of water stored in her basement in case the electricity would go out and she couldn't get water, she kept plenty of food on hand, she liked to read about survival and things of that nature. She learned many skills to help her in many situations.

   In more recent years when I would call to visit with her and I would tell her about our gardening, cooking from scratch, sewing, wild food harvests, canning,  etc.- Grandma would say "That is good that you can do that- I am afraid that many young folks don't know how to do those sort of things." I would agree that unfortunately there are a lot of people that have lost these basic skills but then encourage her with my reports that I was seeing a reviving interest in them. She was always happy to hear that.

 When my parents and I were traveling home from my Grandma's funeral we had fun talking about some of our memories of her. I have also had fun talking with others lately who also knew her and I decided it would be fun to write down a list of some of those things that I remember (or was told about) about her that are part of my homesteading heritage.

So here are some of the things that my Grandma did on her homestead:

• When my Dad and Uncle John were little she used to butcher 100 chickens in a day mostly by herself. My grandpa would chop of the heads and then she with the help of her two boys would do the rest. That was without a plucker too. I have to say I am pretty impressed and don't think I will ever be able to match that!
• When I was a kid Grandma would purposely come visit us at butchering time so that she could help. For someone that didn't enjoy the process all that much, I was very impressed that she was willing to do that.
• My Grandpa died before I was ever born so Grandma had many years by herself. She had her own chainsaw and she knew how to use it. She always heated her house with wood (though my uncle did help put up a lot of that wood).
• She had a pistol and knew how to use it and I remember one story about how she used it to "take care of" a skunk that was on her property.
• She always had a garden until her later years and enjoyed using the produce from it. I remember her coming to visit us when I was a kid (from Southern Iowa to Northern MN) and bringing big ripe tomatoes up to us before ours were ripe.
• She planted and cared for fruit trees and I remember peaches, apples and cherries from them. Pie cherries were a specialty that she would share with our family.
• She knew how to sew, knit and crochet and did quite a bit of it for us grandchildren. She also helped us learn to do those things as well.
• When I was newly married and living in Iowa near Grandma we had heard about possible problems that might happen in the year 2000 (Y2K- do you remember?) and so we decided to prepare just in case. We planted a garden again at her place and she got me started with some canning equipment and encouraged me in the process. We had decided that if anything serious did happen that we would go live with Grandma at her rural home. Nothing did happen but it was kind of fun to spend that year with Grandma - preparing.
• Grandma knew the wisdom of stocking up and being prepared. We had fun going shopping and buying in bulk from Amish stores in the area.

I would guess that I have just hit the surface of all the homesteading activities that Grandma did- but I had fun thinking about the heritage that I have in that area and I hope that you enjoyed it too and that maybe you will be reminded of some of the things that you have learned from your grandparents or other elderly people in your life.

I am linking this to the Homestead Barn Hop at Homestead Revival.

Family and Friends~ Visiting and having visitors~ Sickness and health. It has been busy lately.

My dad and his brother John and their families after my Grandma's Funeral.

Life normally stays pretty full for us but lately it has been extra full.

 The main (and not normal) events lately have been (in order of when they happened): Helping out with hosting homeless people at our church building for a week (around 20 of them), Helping out with our Republican County Convention, Traveling down to Iowa to my Grandma's funeral, Having company come to stay with us (3 families with a total of 16 people), helping out with and attending a Weekend Winter Retreat at our church and All of us but Ken coming down with a virus that we picked up somewhere.

Keren, Martha, Peter, Anna, Luke and Abbi

 Some of the blessings that we have received from these events are: Being reminded of how very blessed we are, Getting to meet and spend time with people that I normally wouldn't get to know in our community, Getting to spend time with others who also very strongly want to get our country back to the roots it was founded on, Seeing my extended family (very nearly everybody on my Dad's side including his cousins), Getting to enjoy time with all my brothers and sisters and their families, Wonderful hospitality of a very sweet christian couple who are friends of my parents, Getting to travel and visit with my parents, Having wonderful friends come to stay with us, sweet fellowship, wonderful spiritual encouragement, laughter and music and staying healthy until pretty much everything was over (we did still have one family staying with us when we got sick and we are hoping they make it home without getting sick!).

Here are some photos....

 I wondered what the funeral home director thought about our visitation time for Grandma. Though we were sad in our missing of her it was also a joyful time as we knew that she was where she wanted to be (and she specifically asked that we would be happy for her), and we had a wonderful time remembering her and enjoying our time together as a family and with the others that came to be with us. All of Grandma's 15 great-grandchildren were there and although they were good, 4 hours of visitation can get long. We were thankful that they did have a special family room.

 Grandma (my mom) spent some time reading stories.

 Sometimes the play got a little rambunctious.

 While in Iowa we were very blessed to have an older Christian Couple from the church where my Dad grew up, offer to let our family stay with them. My younger brother and his wife and my youngest sister did stay with my great Aunt but the rest of us (21 in all) stayed with the Kerkoves. They have a big old farmhouse and are used to having family gatherings and we felt extremely blessed by their hospitality! We had thought we would stay at a hotel but this was so much nicer and we are very grateful.

  The kids and I had traveled down with my parents as Ken needed to stay home and work. It was fun to have that extra time with them and we had fun visiting and spending time together while traveling. It is nice because we all like to travel frugally so we packed nearly all the food that we ate while traveling.

A day after getting back from Iowa we had company come. I think our house was as full as it has ever been but it sure was a lot of fun!

Four families staying in one house can create some close fellowship! :-) The picture above (which I took from Jason and Michelle's Facebook page as I hadn't taken many pictures) is of the Moms; Christy, Michelle, Myself and Carrie. We have four bedrooms in our house (though generally one is used for my office/craft room) and so each couple got a room and little kids stayed with their parents. The 6 oldest girls slept in the living room and the 4 oldest boys slept in the laundry room. We were able to schedule things pretty well with two bathrooms and I don't think anyone had to take cold showers nor did I ever see anyone dancing around waiting to get in.  I am thankful that we have quite a few air mattresses and foam pads as that makes life more comfortable for everyone. Also our hide-a-bed couch came in handy as did an extra mattress and box springs which we borrowed from my parents.

  We had a wonderful time at our church retreat with Christians from our area as well as from around the country attending. I helped teach a rambunctious but fun children's class on Saturday morning (On God's steadfastness), played the piano and violin for song services (so very fun when you have a lot of people singing heartily) and helped out with the food. I also really enjoyed the preaching and getting to visit with so many other Christians.

  Most of our company left on Sunday afternoon but we were blessed to have Jason and Michelle and their girls stay until Wednesday morning. We also we able to spend more time with my sister Martha and kids on Monday before they headed back to North Carolina.

  On Monday Megan started to be sick and then the bug seems to have just kept spreading since then. I had hoped everybody might be better by today as we had planned on going sledding with our homeschool group. That was not to be however so we are enjoyed a quiet restful day at home instead. I think everyone is improving however and we will probably being energetic and healthy again soon!

   I hope you all are doing well!

Remembering My Grandpa

 My Grandpa Alvin went on to be with the Lord this past Saturday night. So naturally this week I am thinking often of him and remembering times we have spent together. We are also preparing for a trip to Nebraska to attend his funeral and spend time with family.

  I haven't had a very close personal relationship with my Grandpa simply because we always lived hundreds of miles away from each other (except the few months following my birth as my parents actually lived near my grand-parents when I was born) and since we weren't wealthy and were rather tied down on our homestead in Northern MN during my growing up years we would only travel to see my Mom's family once a year at New Years time and pretty much the whole family would gather then (which was great fun!) and since it was a very large family there wasn't a lot of individual attention after the initial hug when we arrived. Grandpa would come to see us occasionally but not every year as he was very busy too with his farming and other responsibilities. But close relationship or not my Grandpa has still always been someone that I have looked up to and respected a lot. I thank God for him and his life for so many reasons and I thought it would be fun to share some of those reasons with you.

My Grandpa and  (some of) his family or which I am happy to be a part.

 Reasons that I am thankful for my Grandpa:

~He loved God with all his heart. He was a Christian and someone who studied his Bible and sought to know God's truth. He also taught it to others. He would encourage us to seek God first in our lives too. If we can do that too - what better legacy could my Grandpa leave behind? None that I  know of.

~He loved his family. I do not remember my biological grandma very well as she died of breast cancer just before I turned 6. But I have enjoyed hearing stories of how my Grandpa would help her and care for her. Later on my Grandpa remarried my Grandma Jean and I did enjoy watching their relationship when I had a chance. It was definitely one filled with love and respect for one another. My Grandpa had 9 kids, one of them being my Mom, He was a loving Dad to his children.

 ~He worked hard. My Grandpa was a Nebraska farmer. When my mom was a child they had a dairy farm and then in my memory he raised mostly corn and soybeans. Either way it was a lot of work. But he enjoyed his work and didn't mind working hard. He farmed his land up into his 80's.

~ He enjoyed learning. My Grandpa didn't graduate from highschool (he went through 8th grade and then I believe he was needed on the farm) but that didn't stop him from learning. He enjoyed reading up on things and visiting with others and was very interested in learning. Everybody that knew him considered him to be a very intelligent man.

~He was a good friend. The picture above shows my Grandpa and Grandma and their good friends Bob and June Blanshan. Bob and June lived near us during a lot of my childhood (and Bob was like another Grandpa to me) so it was through Bob that I actually learned more about my Grandpa. He had many stories of how my Grandpa had been able to encourage and help him as he was a struggling young preacher. My grandpa was somebody that he would go to for counsel.

~ He was a faithful "Mr. Steady". My Grandpa was somebody that people could count on. He faithfully lived his life on the farm, helped with the church and reached out to others.

~He loved music and had a great singing voice. (My biological Grandma was very talented in this area as well.) Music has always been a big part of our family. Music specifically that praises God and shares God's truth with others. When my mom was a child her family would sing together. They would go to nursing homes and sing and they ended up doing many concerts other places as well. They started a New Year's Eve sing in their small Nebraska town and that went on for many years. We always loved going to Grandpa's to be a part of it each year.

~He enjoyed traveling. I think this went along with his love of learning. He enjoyed seeing new places. He was in the Navy in World War 2 so that gave him a good start in being a world traveler but he continued to keep it up through-out his life. I remember hearing stories about his trip to the Holy Land and then Thailand. My memory is that he had visited every continent but I am wondering if that was except Antartica.

~He enjoyed times of relaxing and playing games. Growing up the game that I always remember him playing was "Rook". I remember feeling pretty special when at our family gatherings I was old enough to play rook with Grandpa and the Uncles. Later on (I think my Grandma from Indiana was influential in this) they played a lot of Euchre which Ken and I would have fun playing with them at times.

   I am so thankful for the Christian heritage that I have and for the very large part that my Grandpa played in that godly heritage.   

Family Reunion

 Last week we went to a family reunion- actually to be more specific a 3 family reunion. When my Mom was growing up her family very much enjoyed getting together with 2 other families. Now those three families get together every 3 years though various ones of us see each other more often than that as our families truly have been intertwined (though never so far by marriage- maybe that will happen in the 4th generation but it bypassed the 2nd and probably the 3rd ) together and many good friends are in this group.

The top picture is one of my family (4 generations). Not nearly everyone was there but we still make a pretty impressive looking bunch if I say so myself.

This picture is of my cousins (who were there) along with my grandparents.

There is a pretty good sized group of great-grandkids but in this picture I just zoomed in on Grandpa with Aaron and Mara behind him. Grandpa is 90 but still driving on trips regularly (he and Grandma have homes in both Nebraska and Indiana and they go back and forth) and doing pretty good. He is a wonderful man and I am blessed to have him for my Grandpa.

Our family is the largest but the Blanshan family is pretty big too. This is a picture of those in their family who were able to come.

The smallest (but still very important) family is the Williamsons.
 All together there were nearly 150 people at the reunion.

  We stayed at Ironwood Christian Ranch in Stuartville, MN. It was a lovely place though a bit expensive (but I think most establishments of that type are).

 One of the favorite activities at our get-togethers is singing. We are a group of people who love the Lord and love to sing and so we spent hours sitting around singing our praises to Him. What fun harmonies were heard while we were there!

We did have fun doing some other things as well.

 My sister Anna organized an interesting "Family Olympics" and the picture above shows Jessica, Betsy (two of the friends I have had the longest and dearly love) and I with our hair full of spaghetti- the result of a competition called "Javelin Throwing".

 Megan (and I- I enjoy kids crafts too sometimes!) doing crafts.

 Jonathan riding on the zip line. It was great fun though it was over very quickly. We did all get to ride at least twice.

 Dad was the last one to try it. Megan and Beatrice had fun helping Grandpa bring his harness back. They were having him make all sorts of animal noises since he was on a leash.

 We played games like "The Settlers of Catan". It was great fun though this particular game ended up lasting for hours and hours. I nearly won but then they all boycotted trading with me and then Ken snuck up to the place that he was going to win but then just before his turn Brenda surprised us all and won.

 The first generation. In the back are my Grandpa and Grandma. Grandma isn't my biological grandmother (She died when I was 6) but she and Grandpa have been married 25 years now so she is certainly a vital part of our family. In front is Bob and June Blanshan. They have lived in MN and sometimes in our town during my lifetime and they are like another Grandpa and Grandma to me. The first generation of the Williamsons have gone to be with the Lord. I am very grateful for the lives that those pictured and those that have gone on have lived because they have been a godly example to a whole lot of people.

I do feel very blessed with a wonderful family. Do you enjoy getting together with your extended family?

 Also do any of you know of good get-together spots that can house and feed 150 + people comfortably that aren't terribly expensive? (Preferably in the Midwest)

I do plan on getting back to my more normal sort of posting with homesteading activities (I have been having fun in the garden lately!), making things and such but I did want to write about the things that have been going on in my life too as this blog is a type of journal for me too.

A quick trip

   This week the kids and I, along with my parents, took a quick trip down to Southern Iowa. We left early Tuesday morning (out the door before 6 am!) and got home Thursday evening. During our trip we were able to see my Grandma and Uncle and Aunt on my Dad's side, go to a church rally and see lots of old friends there, spend time with my brother and his family (they came to the rally too) and see my sister in the Twin Cities. It felt like a very fast and efficient trip! 

  It was very nice to be able to spend some time with my Grandma. She is in the nursing home now and in her late eighties and I want my children to remember her and I enjoy getting to spend time with her too. My Grandma has played a big role in my life and it was fun to get to see her and visit with her in person again.

  At the nursing home we were able to use the "family room" and we went to the grocery store and Mom bought supper stuff from the deli for all of us to eat. My Uncle John and Aunt Donna came and joined us as well. We stayed for a while until we could see that Grandma was starting to grow tired.

A beautiful sunset that we got to see at my Uncle John's place.

  On Wednesday we spent the whole day at the Centerville Rally. It was so good to see many friends that I became close to while going to bible college in Iowa. Marilyn W. and her crew cooked lots of yummy food as usual. I had fun helping in the kitchen a little which brought back fun memories of helping at camp and rallies in the past, when I lived down there. I also was asked to life guard for the girls swim time and ended up getting a sun burn when I sat out in the sun to long.

  My brother Peter and family had recently moved temporarily to Iowa and so they were able to come to the rally too. We so enjoyed seeing and visiting with them! My niece Jaten is now 8 months old and we had only seen her once before (at 4 months) but she wasn't shy at all. She was still full of smiles and laughter and very good natured! The boys had a wonderful time playing with their cousin Nic. They made full use of the water fountain outside and had some good water fights to help deal with the heat.

Megan and Jaten taking a nap on that very hot afternoon.

 The weather was extremely hot and humid while we were there. Coming from Northern MN it was a bit shocking. We were sweating like we can't remember sweating for a very long time. While we sat listening to a sermon I could just feel the sweat drops running down my face. I just told myself to relax and enjoy losing weight while just sitting there. :-)

   On Thursday we headed home and stopped to eat a late lunch with my sister Anna and her kids in the Cities. Just north of the cities we were able to meet up with Ken (who had been down there for his work) and Megan and I rode the rest of the way home with him.

  I am glad we got to go on our quick trip but it is nice to be home!

Bright orange socks! {And random thoughts on doing things yourself}

 I just finished knitting something that I was kind of excited about- Socks! That seems like a silly thing to be excited about especially when I have knitted more complicated things like sweaters before but I guess that is just how I am. :-) I have wanted to make socks for quite a while but just have never done it before. Now however I can cross that desire off my list! These socks were just tube socks so I do want to try some socks with set heels so I guess I am not done with my sock making.

  Much of my desire to make socks stems from this passion of mine to "make it myself!" I don't like to use the term self sufficiency because I will never ever be self sufficient. I can do absolutely nothing without my God who created me and I desperately need other people too, however I do think it is fun to see what all I can make instead of buy if I need to.

   My parents have lived for much of their lives growing much of their own food, raising their own animals for meat,  milk and eggs. They also built (and we kids got to help too!) the house we grew up in, built much of our furniture, sewed much of our clothes and so on. It definitely made me to love being able to do things on my own as well.

   Do any of the rest of you remember all the scare around the turn of the century- going from 1999 to 2000? Ken and I were in college at the time (Fairly newly married and Mara had just arrived) and living near my Grandma in Iowa. There was a lot of talk about how the electricity might all shut off and who knows what all else. "It might be the End of life as we know it!". We heard a lot about this and weren't sure what to think about whether there would really be troubles or not but I certainly didn't ever worry about it. I know this is weird but I kind of got excited thinking about how we would deal with it if it should happen. And so just in case we decided to prepare. 

  We started a garden not only out back of our apartment but also at my grandma's and at another friends place nearby where they had extra room. We also stocked up on other food, toilet paper and jugs of water. It seems kind of silly now but honestly it was lots of fun (at least for me!) figuring out how we would be able to manage even if we didn't have electricity and stores weren't running like normal. My Grandma grew up during the depression and I think she had fun getting ready "just in case" too.

   I still like the idea of being prepared. And honestly news of hard economic times or other things like that don't ever worry me- I just feel a bit excited that maybe all of my preparations might get tested. After researching for years- I might actually have to do more "living off the land". Maybe someday I won't be able to buy socks at the store and I might need to make them. Well I'm ready! :-)  

  The socks ended up bigger than I had thought they would be at first and so I am the one who gets them. I think they would fit Ken too but I don't think he wants bright orange socks. I don't mind, I think they are kind of fun. The kids like them too, Aaron told me they fit him just fine- over his pajamas. Megan calls them her boots.

 I found the pattern for them in this book called "Kids Knitting" by Melanie Falick. It has quite a few simple and cute knitting patterns. And even though I am not a kid I managed to follow it too. :-)

 Have any of you ever knit socks? Do you have any desire too?

And I'm curious- Did you get ready for Y2K? Or did you even know anything about the scare associated with it?

Do you like to be prepared and do stuff yourself?  Please talk with me in the comments!

I am hoping to make more socks before to long. The kids all want their own pair. I am eyeing this pattern next.