Lots of Stitches!

On and off my needles...

 

 Just some of the photos I found on my computer and my phone.

Next week I'll share what I'm working on this week. 

Happy Stitching!

Laura

 

REVIEW: I DREAM FOR YOU Written by Kate Wood Illustrated by Mette Engell

Hello everyone!

I have another review for you today. It's been awhile since I've written a review, and now two so close together! Perhaps this one won't be so controversial. ~smile~

    Today's book is called I Dream For You. It was written by Kate Wood and illustrated by Mette Engell.  It is intended as a read aloud for young kids. I would say maybe 3 to 9. It could be used for younger and older kids as well.  

    It's got a down-to-earth style that I enjoy. It's a celebration of the love, hopes, and dreams that a mother has for her child from womb through adulthood. We all have something tucked in our hearts that we hope for our children. A love for Jesus and a dedication to him is the highest hope many of us have for our children.  

    This book from Zonderkidz illustrates many of the hopes and dreams that moms have for their children. Kate Wood includes a list of scriptures in the back of the books to inspire moms to pray for their children. 

    There are different races and physical abilities represented in the book thanks to Mette Engell's artwork. The hopes and dreams belong to all of the children. All children can pursue their dreams.

    The snowy day play is my favorite illustration. The children play together and find joy. There's a emphasis on inclusion of all types of children and mothers. There's a celebration of questions that children ask. It's a very nice book. It's written from a mother's perspective. As a grammy to one, I'll give this book to my daughter to share with her son when she's ready.

Consider this book for gift giving. It would be a great gift for Easter, a birthday, or just because.  

Purchase Link  

#IDreamForYou 

@katie_clova @zonderkidz

I received this book free for review.

A Little Randomness ~ 1976

When I sat down at the computer a few months ago, I had a totally random idea. Randomness isn't anything unusual for my pinball brain. ~smile~ I decided to use a random number generator to give me a year from 1969 (when I have my first few memories) to 2024. 

I shared at least one memory from the year and then added in any randomness that came to mind. I've decided to do it again. I found it helped me to get past my writer's block and also gave readers something to spark a memory, or at least something interesting or silly or nostalgic to read. So here we go again!

Random Year:  1976

• The United States Bicentennial was celebrated all year. In fact, on tv, there were movies, programs and what we'd now call shorts that were inserted between regular programming that told and showed the history of the colonial period and the things that were leading up to the Revolutionary War. 

• I had the same teacher for 4th and 5th grade. Her name was Pamela Higgs. She was the most influential teacher I ever had. In fact, she truly influenced the trajectory of my life. I wrote a blog post about her a few years ago.

• Mrs. Higgs taught practical skills and crafts from the olden days during our art times. We made butter, learned to embroider, play chess, macrame, and she read Little House in the Prairie and other books to us after lunch. She helped me have a diy spirit. 

• I became dedicated to learning to sew, embroider, crochet, macrame, bake, and cook. Sparkling Sugar Cookies from the Junior Betty Crocker Cookbook was the first recipe that I remember mastering. I'd lost the recipe for years, but I found it written out in my daughter's childhood cookbook.

• My mom remarried. 

• We lived in town, but the back-to-nature bug had bitten my mom and step-dad. They were making plans behind the scenes to move to acreage outside town. 

• I rode my bike freely in our neighborhood and played at the wet weather creek with my little brother and neighborhood kids. It was nearly always dry. There was a spot where generations of kids had ridden their bikes down one bank and up the next and worn a path. It was at the back of a large field owned by a church. We flew kites there every March. We kids never thought about who owned the property. It was ours. ~grin~

• I liked making clothes for my Barbie doll, and watching Happy Days! Fonzie was so cool!

That's all I remember right now. What do YOU remember?

Laura

Happy to Remember

~~~

Time Traveling Through My Memories

A Little Randomness:

• 1972
• 1973 
• 1978 
• 1996 
• 1998 
• 2004

REVIEW: Elon Musk By Walter Isaacson

 

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

Elon Musk is certainly one of the most controversial men of our time. Those who speak of him seem to be polarized by his personality, his style, his words, his actions, and even by the money that he has made. I've heard him criticized for being a billionaire. I wonder if those criticizing realize the poverty he came from or the fierce focus and devotion that has lead to those billions. He has very specific goals. Those goals are meant to help humanity. His medium is technology and engineering. His giftings, including objectivity and intensity combined with his skills in engineering and shaving every penny of waste in his companies have lead him to do things that many thought impossible. I've found this book about this fascinating man to be just that—fascinating. 

My Thoughts:

Even the introduction was intense. In fact, it seems that every part of Elon Musk's life was and is intense. I chose to listen to this book on audio. It is one of the best written biographies that I have ever listened to or read. Walter Isaacson has written this book in the voice of an insider not just someone who has read about Musk or researched him. It is, however, very obvious that Isaacson has done his homework both with Musk and with those who have known him. Musk's life reads like a novel. Sometimes it is sad, sometimes volatile, sometimes joyous, sometimes against impossible odds. But Musk is always focused and fearless. 

Isaacson takes us through Musk's life in depth, looking at it from various perspectives, and going through the many stages of the numerous projects that he's been involved in including PayPal, a map app, SpaceX, and Tesla, to name a few. There are three things that stood out to me. 

First, Elon Musk is not your average man. He is brilliant. He thinks differently than we do. He sees things differently. He does things differently. Status quo isn't in his vocabulary. He questions everything.

Second, he really is focused on the long range good of mankind and of our country.

Third, he is neurodivergent. He doesn't seem to go through things as emotionally as most of us do. He's able to detach from the emotion. That makes him uniquely able to make some of the decisions he makes. 

Whether you like him or not, he has and will continue to make a major impact on our country and on our world. 

I highly recommend this book. I also highly recommend praying for him. He needs Jesus and our prayers to help him through it all.

About The Book

The #1 New York Times and global bestseller from Walter Isaacson—the acclaimed author of Steve Jobs, Einstein: His Life and World, Benjamin Franklin, and Leonardo da Vinci—is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating, controversial innovator of modern times. For two years, Isaacson shadowed Elon Musk as he executed his vision for electric vehicles at Tesla, space exploration with SpaceX, the AI revolution, and the takeover of Twitter and its conversion to X. The result is the definitive portrait of the mercurial pioneer that offers clues to his political instincts, future ambitions, and overall worldview.

When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.

His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.

At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said.

It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.

For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?

Famed biographer Walter Isaacson -- who’s studied and written about Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Ben Franklin, and Leonardo da Vinci – spent 2 years shadowing Elon Musk and it clearly shows in this fascinating book. You really get to know Musk as an inventor and as a person, and you feel like a fly on the wall watching things like Tesla development and SpaceX launches. You also learn about Musk’s tough childhood in South Africa and how that shaped him.

Purchase Link: https://bit.ly/PartnerEM  Get an exclusive 40% discount off the hardcover by using code MUSK40 at ElonMuskTheBook.com from March 10 to April 15.

 #walterisaacson #elonmuskbook

@walterisaacson

An Old Old Recipe for Oatmeal Cookies

I've been making these cookies ever since I can remember. I must have been 10 or 11 when I started making them. The recipe is typed out on a faded card that's bent and smudged. I like it because it doesn't use quite as much butter as most cookie recipes.

Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 c + 2 T butter

1 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1 egg

1/4 c water

1 t vanilla

3 c oats

1 c flour

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 c raisins

Beat together butter, sugars, egg, water and vanilla until creamy.

Combine dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients. Mix well.

Stir in 1 cup raisins.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Let them set on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before removing them to a rack to cool.

Be ready with a glass of cold milk, a glass of lemonade or some iced tea.

You won't want to wait a moment longer than necessary to take that first nibble!


Note: Sometimes I just use 1 cup of butter since it's easier. I haven't noticed a difference. It will appear a bit gloppy for cookie dough. Let it set a few minutes, and it thickens.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

Laura

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A Simple Bridal Gift with Instructions

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071309

Simple Little Reminders of Grandma Bern

Grandma Bernadine Conklin, Laura, Matthew, and Dad
Four Generations
Happy Birthday in Heaven Grandma!

~ April 1st, her birthday
~ Thanksgiving
~ Miracle on 34th Street
~ big vegetable gardens
~ shelves of home canned foods
~ large pearl tapioca pudding
~ eggs fried in bacon grease
~ the smell of coffee and bacon in the morning
~ Christmas cookies
~ The Catholic Church
~ Pepsi in glass bottles
~ date pinwheel cookies
~ stacks of magazines
~ old metal swing sets
~ old Christmas carols
~ Bing Crosby Christmas songs
~ chickens
~ handprints in concrete sidewalks
~ cool, dark cellars
~ open stairs
~ cellar stairs under the kitchen floor
~ wringer washers
~ bowling score pads
~ waxed cardboard milk boxes
~ milk bottles and home milk delivery
~ braided plastic bread bag rugs
~ wooden screen doors
~ open cellar stairs
~ old-fashioned claw foot tubs
~ apple butter
~ cut-out sugar cookies in an ice cream bucket
~ hand cranked homemade ice cream
~ old black dial telephones
~ pump organs
~ crocheted doilies
~ big chest freezers
~ vintage brown stoneware dishes, I think they were Hull.
~ big Texas Ware bowls
~ black and white photos
~ cotton house dresses
~ long drives at night
~ raisin bread pudding
~ green ceramic Christmas trees with lights

Missing Grandma,
Laura